The Heart that Transcended Time
by JaxofTrade
Summary: Chapter 5 is up! The boy sees some kind of love triangle between Sakura, Naruto, and Hinata. As he takes a sort of interest in this, he finds that Naruto is too oblivious to even notice either girl's interest in him, giving him a massive headace...
1. Chapter 1

A Story that Transcends Time

Disclaimer: I in no way claim ownership to the Kingdom Hearts series made by Square Enix and Disney, and since this is a Kingdom Hearts fanfic, it'd involve other stories (like how it is in the video games) and I in no way claim ownership to them either. The only ownership I claim was the idea of putting the story plot the way it is, and any other ideas that claim no ownership to.

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It's been like this as long as I can remember… Ever since I took hold of my Key Blade, I've been fighting one battle after another, seeing so many things.

The Key Blade, a key-shaped weapon of un-imaginable power, each is unique, and each chooses its own master, as if it has a will of its own. It's origins unknown, only that it has the power to lock the heart of each world so that heartless may not enter and corrupt it. Heartless are darkness made real, they are corrupted hearts with neither a body nor soul. Their purposes are still a mystery, only that it takes the hearts of others. An order of people known as Key Blade Masters are chosen ones who wield Key Blade, they battle heartless in each world, maintaining the balance and order between each world.

As far as I know, this all started when a group of Key Blade masters began to stray from their ways, and started to disagree with the others, believing that the Key Blade is meant to bring each world to their knees, for them to bow down to the chosen few, the elite who are worthy of wielding the awesome power of the Key Blade. They began by bending the heartless to do their will, and eventually using them to take control of each world. Eventually, they severed ties with the other Key Blade Masters and formed their own order known as The Scions of the Void, and eventually went into war with the other Key Blade masters.

And so… for so many generations now, as far as anybody could remember, this war had gone on, and at last the war is almost at an end. The armies of light and darkness finally began. In a forgotten city between the light and darkness.

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It's a deserted metropolis filled with sky scrapers, and buildings with neon lights. It's name forgotten, and it was once said that one of the first Key Blade masters fought here to save the world from the creatures who tethered between light and darkness. And so, both sides finally make their last stand. A young man named Asura clad with his brown chained pants with a blue top began barking orders to each teams of Key Blade Masters.

"Okay 2nd battalion, secure the perimeter, and take down any one with the scions, 1st battalion goes to secure their strong hold and 3rd battalion, spread out and eliminate any heartless or anybody in league with the Scions, move!!" Asura barked as each group marched out to carry out their assignment. "Kenji, you know what you have to do… You have to defeat Veil."

He then turned to a young man in his mid-teens wearing a loosened red top and blue pants, his hair brown and disheveled. He looked at him as if this may be the last time that he could.

"Don't worry, I won't let you guys down." Kenji said as he ran off in a path where nobody has taken yet.

Somewhere in the middle of the metropolis, a man in his 40's clad in a black robe looked up at the sky. In the midst of the dark of the night sky, little glitters of light began to gather in one spot, as if being called by something.

"Ah… So it's begun… And it's faster than I originally anticipated." The man said removing his hood slowly, revealing a mix of cerulean and silver hair, and a skin as pale as snow and a sinister grin that spelled doom to those who opposed him. "Come, Kenji, it's time we had our last duel…"

The young Key Blade Master ran through the city, it felt as though the darkness was ever present. Then, a group of 3 Heartless wielding swords appeared from the ground, ready for battle, and surrounded the Key Blade Master.

"Alright you guys have it your way then…" Kenji grinned as he summoned his Key Blade in a flash of light. Its hilt was crimson red, the handle jet black, its blade sterling silver and it's silver key chain was shaped with a pair of crossed swords.

The Key Blade Master took a stance immediately after he drew his weapon. Seemingly provoked, a trio of Heartless rushed the Key wielder, but the boy jumped faster than they could charge in. While in mid-air, the boy shifted his body horizontally, and slammed his Key Blade at the back of the middle one's head, and with that, vanquished the demonic heartless away. As he landed on the ground, Kenji leaped toward another heartless and slammed his Key Blade through its spine. And as it too vanished the last one arched his sword downwards hoping to finish him off in one blow, but that didn't happen as even before it could swing down half way, the boy parried the blade away and slammed his Key Blade into its chest. Then, as if on cue, several more heartless took their place, at least 5 for each defeated.

"Crap… I don't have time for this…!" Kenji cursed under his breath readying for a second round. The boy hoped that he wouldn't have to waste his energy like this, but it seemed unavoidable, he'll have to run the risk of fighting them and getting some injuries in the process.

"Don't worry Kenji, I've got them!" a familiar voice called out from atop of a tall building.

Then, seemingly from nowhere, a brown-haired young woman leaped in the middle of the crowd of heartless and vanquished 5 of them in one swing before landing on her feet. She had a rather comfortable looking overall mixed with pink and purple, and her Key Blade had a yellow hilt, blue handle, a pink blade and a flowery tip. She also took a stance, readying herself to battle against the creatures of darkness. The two found themselves back to back against a crowd of heartless.

"Iris! You're late again!" Kenji scowled.

"Well, you know me; I like to take my time." Iris giggled. "But you don't have the time and energy to waste here, you have to go and beat Veil. He's at the heart of this place. I don't know what he's planning, but I don't like it. You've got to hurry up and get to him already!"

"What are you saying?! I can't leave you behind!" Kenji protested to the girl behind him thinking that she's probably gone crazy or something.

"Yes you can and you will!" Iris shouted. "Listen, I can take care of myself! So don't worry about me!"

"But I can't! I care too much about you to see you get hurt." Kenji said feeling his heart finally speaking the truth about his feelings.

"Kenji, trust me! I'll be fine! They won't be able to get me, I promise." Iris said with a comforting smile.

Feeling relieved, the young Key Blade Master leaped atop a nearby building, and looked back, pondering whether or not he made the right choice as Iris finally shifted to an offensive stance. The boy then leaped away hoping for the best, that she would stay alive, and that finally everything would turn out for the better.

'Iris! You'd better stay alive! Because… I still haven't told you that… That I love you…' Kenji thought as he could think of nothing else but her safety. 'But I can't worry about that right now… Veil is close… really close.'

'I can feel you, Kenji, you're close…' the jet-black cloaked man thought. 'It's almost time then… If only you knew what I was up to, you and your friends would never have stepped foot in this place…'

"Veil!" Kenji shouted as he landed on the concrete floor on his feet.

"I've been expecting you, brat…" Veil sneered as he faced the Key Blade Master. "Have you come to witness the truly worthy to receive the power that they deserve?"

"No! Veil, the Key Blade is meant to seal away the heart of each world! What you're doing is wrong!" Kenji protested. "Think of how many people you're going to hurt with this stunt of yours!"

"Like I care… I couldn't even care less about those worlds and their petty little inhabitants." The dark master scoffed. "We Key Blade masters are chosen to heralds of a new empire where the strong rule and the weak serve!"

"No! I refuse to let the worlds fall into that kind tyranny!" Kenji shouted drawing his Key Blade.

The Dark Key Blade master then removed his robes only to reveal himself being covered with an obsidian colored armor from the neck down. Then, with a swing of his arms, Veil drew his a Key Blade with a hilt constructed from bones of origins unknown, a crimson red hilt, a blade wrapped with some bandages, a sharpened tip with no other purpose but to kill and had a jet-black colored skull as it's key chain. It also emitted an ominous aura that would send chills down the spine of any weak hearted person.

"The Key Blades chose us to be the rulers of the worlds! They chose us because we have power and we deserve power!" Veil professed. "We are the heralds of the future! We are the Sheppard, and everyone else are nothing more than sheep in a flock whose destiny is to submit to our rule!"

"You're wrong, Veil, true strength emerges from the heart when somebody protects another. It's what ties us as a whole to make us stronger." Kenji said as though he had rehearsed those words his whole life only for that moment. "Freedom is the right of all! And that's something you can't take away!"

"You are as pathetic as the rest, what a waste! You don't know the power that you have! And for that, you will die!"

Both Key Blade masters rushed each other with blinding speed, and the clash of their Key Blades was so loud that it could've been heard from miles away. Veil leaped back and aimed his Key Blade for Kenji, it's tip began to glow a red flare.

"Fire!" with that command, fire shots came out from it's tip in rapid succession.

Kenji continued to rush his foe as he parried each fire spell and leaped into the air and raised his Key Blade into the air. It began glowing yellow and started to emit violent yellow sparks. It was as if the Key Blade itself was commanding nature.

"Thunder!" Kenji command caused violent bolts of lightning to come crashing into the ground, blasting the Dark Key Blade master along with the pavement which he stood.

"Heh, not bad kid!" Veil sneered as he rushed Kenji once more.

The two Key Blades continued to clash with one another in unimaginable speed. Each swing was with the intent to kill, whether it was attacking or defending. They clashed continually up to the point when sparks began to fly as each time Key Blades collided. Caught while both had the intention to attack, they found each other locked where they were forced to push against each other. Moments seemed like hours as they continued to struggle against each other's push. Feeling the pressure both fighters leaped backwards struggling to catch their breath, and trying to relieve themselves of the pressure built up from the clash. Kenji seemed so focused in the battle he had now, but his concentration was broken when the sky began to glow purple, and the clouds began to clear revealing a huge heart shaped moon just beyond one's reach.

"Ah… Finally… It's here… Kingdom Hearts!" Veil said with glee. "Did you know Kenji that there was once an ancient battle that took place here? It was a long time ago when creatures known as nobodies tried to create the impossible… Kingdom Hearts…"

"What?! That's Kingdom Hearts?!" Kenji said in disbelief as he stared at an old legend of what was thought to have been lost centuries ago.

"Unfortunately, some of the first known Key Blade masters intervened and it resulted in a fraction of it's power to be lost. But even if that's the case, it's power is still great…" Veil explained. "And did you know, that those who rule Kingdom Hearts rule everything? All would bow before them, but the beings of each world would be subject to it's master's rule… But did you know, that it wasn't just limited to that?"

"What are you talking about?!" Kenji said readying his stance once more.

"I'm saying that EVERYTHING is subject to it's rule… Including time…" Veil said with a sinister grin as he raised his Key Blade into the air and it began to glow a malicious aura. "And with it, I'll become… a God…"

"No…!" Kenji said in horror realizing what would happen if he became the ruler or even worst god of all worlds, it would mean eternal tyranny. "I won't let that happen!"

"But you're already too late! All I need to do is corrupt the energy that I absorb from Kingdom Hearts and I'll be invincible!" Veil shouted

The dark master then began absorbing the energy of Kingdom Hearts, it's energy slowly transferring to his Key Blade and back to him as dark energy. The world began to shake violently as his strength grew exponentially. He was soon surrounded by an evil aura that grew larger and larger.

"No! I won't let you!" Kenji shouted as he rushed the Dark Key Blade master, but it was no good, the aura was so dense, that his strike couldn't go through, and instead flung him back yards away.

Soon, the aura stopped growing, even though it was already huge enough as it was. Veil fell on his knees breathing hard and laughing hard.

"So this is it…! True power!" Veil shouted. "Even though I've only absorbed a fraction of it, it still feels incredible! Now I really can't wait until I fully absorbed it all!"

"No! This stops here!" Kenji shouted.

"You're still here, I see…" Veil snickered. "It's great, now I have somebody to test my powers on, so be sure not to die too quickly…"

The dark key blade master then disappeared into thin air, to the naked eye, he may have gone off somewhere, but Kenji knew better, Veil was moving around in the speed of light, avoiding and evading, just waiting for an opening. And he did, Kenji felt something slam him from behind, it was metallic and it flung him back yards away and forced him to land on his face. Though he quickly recovered, Veil wouldn't let up, he charged in and his slashes were at blinding speed, Kenji could barely defend. Though he blocked away, some more penetrated his defense. Veil arched his blade downwards, Kenji raised his Key Blade to defend, but it was a fake, the dark master quickly took back the stroke, and swiped his Key Blade across Kenji's abdomen. Not only did he lose his breath, but he was also flung several ways back.

"Had enough, boy?" Veil sneered.

It was a hopeless battle, he was an opponent who was superior to you in speed and strength, and his attacks came down faster than bolts of lightning. Kenji clung to his Key Blade for support as he tried to raise himself up higher, and on his feet as he struggled to merely stay conscious. The boy's hands were shaking, and his arms eyes were bluring. At that moment, he had a swift vision of everything he's done in his life, all the good, and what had it gotten him? A fate that certainly spelled doom for him. It was an agonizing feeling of regret, his mind had this feeling that he was going to die right there and then, but yet his heart told him that it wasn't the end, it was only the beginning...

"Never!" Kenji shouted as he took his stance, though shaky.

"I've had enough fun, now, I'll send you to a fate worst than death…" Veil said with an evil smirk. "Now, I'll send you to a fate where in all you hold most dear is taken away from you… Where and when my minions have wiped all those you care for!!!"

The dark key blade master then raised his Key Blade into the sky and arched it down wards. There was a ripping sound as if he'd torn something. Moments later, out of nowhere a vortex leading nowhere ripped open right before Kenji's eyes. It began to suck everything including Kenji to its uninviting darkness. It was no use, he held on to his Key Blade for stability, but it was no good, he could feel himself slowly losing his grip of not only his Key Blade, but also reality itself.

"Drown in everlasting darkness!" Veil howled in laughter as Kenji did lose consciousness and was sucked into the vortex along with his Key Blade.

He drifted off in the unending dimensions of the vortex, wandering off from one point to another, with no destination… Starting to wake slowly, his mind began racing.

'It's funny...' Kenji thought. 'I thought that I'd never get the chance to tell Iris how I felt, but I guess that somehow I'll get my chance to do that...'

With that, he slowly lost consciousness of everything around him...

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Okay people, hope you liked this chapter, if not, then I think you'll like the next chapters...


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, sorry for the hold up, it took forever write all of the stuff down and covering as much as I could, so enjoy the chapter!!!

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It was hours till the Key Blade master somehow escaped the vortex, only to land in a very dense forest and still be unconscious and still gripping his Key Blade tightly. The forest where he landed was very humid, trees were everywhere and were so tall that it almost blocked out the sun from reaching the ground floor. The root of each tree was so over grown that it began to procure from the ground as an annoying obstacle. Kenji slowly began to regain consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes only to see his vision though slowly coming into focus, is a blur. His head felt that it was stepped on by dozens of heavy elephants and was throbbing with pain. As soon as his vision started to get clear, he began to examine his surroundings, trying to analyze where he was.

"Where am I?" Kenji mumbled as he rubbed his head in an attempt to relieve himself of the throbbing headache he's having.

Then, out of nowhere, several sharp, rotating objects came out racing from just beyond the trees. Kenji raised his Key Blade to deflect every one of them. Once he deflected the last one, he knew he wasn't alone.

"Not bad kid, you're able to deflect our shuriken with that piece of crap."

Then, 3 figures dropped from the trees, all had thick, protective over alls, and they had rather peculiar head bands with 3 vertical lines carved into them. They seemed to be no older than Kenji himself. All 3 had their hands in their nap sacks, taking out more of their shuriken and knives.

"Look, I'm not looking for trouble so please leave me alone." Kenji requested.

"Yeah right, and miss out on the scroll you have? No way!" the middle one retorted.

"Hey Bane, this may sound weird, but this guy doesn't have a head band." The one to the left shouted.

"Well what if he's just using a Gen-Jutsu to hide it? What then? Think clearly would you, Arc?" the one to the right pointed out.

"Arc! Rai! Shut up! We're in a fight here!" Bane shouted.

"Uh… What scroll are you talking about? And what is Gen-Jutsu?" Kenji said as though he was clueless about what they were talking about (in fact he was). His head was filled with sweat drops coming from not only his not having an idea on what's going on and anxiety in anticipating their next attack.

"Stop playing stupid!" Rai shouted furiously. "This is the Chunin exams, and were supposed to take your scroll!"

This only confused Kenji even more… Chunin Exam? Gen-Jutsu? Scrolls? What in the world were these people talking about?

"I think you made a mistake, I'm not here for the Chunin Exams or whatever you call it." Kenji said trying to persuade them not to attack. "I don't even know what in the world a Chunin is!"

"Enough! Let's do this! Ready your kunai knives!" Arch shouted raising his shuriken and kunai knives.

Kenji gave a long sigh. "Oh well…"

Kenji raised his Key Blade up into the air.

"Thunder!" but nothing but the wind came as a result for the bewildered Key Blade master. "Fire! Blizzard?! Oh crap…."

There was nothing but more wind coming and nothing coming from the Key Blade. What in the world just happened to his spells?! There was no way that he could've forgotten those after he spent years perfecting those spells, and yet this happened…

"Hahahah!" all 3 burst out laughing at the failed attempt to cast his spells.

"If that was your Nin-Jutsu, then you're a lot more of a novice that I thought!" Rai howled in laughter.

"This is Nin-Jutsu!" Bane then hurled a shuriken and crossed his index and middle fingers. "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Then in an instant, the single shuriken became many more. Kenji leaped into the air to evade the deadly spray of shuriken. Then Arc hurled a kunai knife with a strange tag attached. Taking no chances, he parried away the tagged knife, and luckily he did because when the kunai knife attached itself to a nearby tree, it exploded, leaving nothing but debris and splinters, remains of the once great tree.

"Holy crap what the hell was that?!" Kenji shouted narrowing his eyes in horror of what would have become of him had that kunai knife made contact or even came close enough to him.

Even as he landed, he was given no breathing room, Bane came rushing at him with blinding speed with a Kunai Knife held in his hand. Kenji arched his Key Blade down wards, striking Bane's wrist, leaving him open to an attack. Taking the chance, he arched his right leg side ways, slamming his instep into the boy's face and sent him flying the other way. With thoughts of avenging Bane's defeat, Arc hurled several shuriken and readied a kunai knife Rai also followed suite and readied his own kunai knife. Kenji deflected every shuriken that came his way and as Arc came within range, the Key Blade master leaped only high enough to evade the Arc's slash, and arched his Key Blade downwards, striking Rai in the shoulder bone and rendered him as unconscious as Bane was. As he landed, he wasted no time and rushed the unguarded Arc and slammed his Key Blade through his abdomen and left him paralyzed.

"Those guys meant serious business…" Kenji said catching his breath after his battle.

"Not bad, and not even using your Nin-Jutsu or Gen-Jutsu… You must be one heck of a shinobi, better than a lot of us…" Arc mumbled taking out a pair of scrolls from his sack and handed them to Kenji. Both had different markings in the middle. "Here just take them and leave us alone, we're sorry that we collected more than we needed. Now leave us alone!"

"Okay…" Kenji said even more bewildered than before, and pocketing his newly acquired scrolls.

Then, respecting their request, he left them be, besides, he had a lot more to worry about. It was hard traversing through the forest, Kenji ended up hacking one vine after another with his Key Blade just to get through, and yet those were the least of his worries. Where was he? How can he get out and what happened to Iris and the others? And what exactly did Veil do? Several explosions were rushing through his mind like an erupting volcano and lava just waiting to rush out after being kept underground for so long.

After what seemed to be took what seemed like forever, Kenji finally arrived at a clearing, there was a huge tower at the center of the clearing, finally, there was hope on getting some information. However, the light of hope was shadowed by darkness as he spotted several heartless, they were attacking a group of 3 shinobi, one had jet black hair and had a blue shirt with a strange symbol consisting of red and white at the back, another was a girl with pink hair and had a red overall, and one blonde with strange whisker marks across his cheek and wore an orange jacket and pants. The boy with jet black hair was breathing hard, his energy seemed almost depleted.

"Damn it Sasuke, don't you have any energy left?!" the blonde growled.

"Shut up Naruto!" Sasuke said with his eyes wincing and his hand grasping his chest where his heart was supposed to be.

"Sakura, can you still fight?" Naruto said.

"Yeah, but I'm worried that Sasuke can't." Sakura replied keeping an eye on all the creeping heartless. "What are these things?!"

"I don't know, and I don't like it…" Sasuke replied as he too with a raised Kunai Knife on the ready.

Suddenly, one of them jumped straight for Naruto, and he retaliated by hurling several shuriken. Though the heartless vanished and faded back into darkness, this provoked the other heartless, they all leaped to strike against Sasuke, but Kenji rushed in and slammed his Key Blade against the incoming heartless.

"What are you doing?! Get up!" Kenji shouted at Sasuke who quickly forced himself back up.

"I didn't need you to save me!" Sasuke spat which only fell on deaf ears.

"Sasuke, now's not the time for this!" Naruto growled at his team mate.

Several heartless rushed the group, in an attempt of taking them down and stealing their hearts. Kenji swung his Key Blade in rapid succession, vanquishing every single heartless that dared to try to attack him. Naruto swung his kunai knife and hurled shuriken from his pouch to banish the heartless from a distance. And no matter how many were vanquished, there still appeared more.

"That the last straw!" Naruto shouted furiously as he crossed his index and middle fingers and focused his energy. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

And in a puff of smoke, so many living replicas of Naruto appeared seemingly from nowhere. All had a grin as they took out a kunai knife, and readied themselves for battle.

"Heh, how do you like me now!" all the Naruto said confidently.

It was the wildest and messiest thing that Kenji ever witnessed. All the replicas of Naruto rushed and trampled the overwhelming crowds of heartless. It was chaos, but nonetheless it was working, the numbers of heartless were decreasing fast as each replica slashed with their kunai, hurled shuriken or slam either fists or feet into an unsuspecting heartless.

'He has the right idea.' Kenji thought as he followed suit and rushed the hordes of heartless and slashed his Key Blade as fast as his arms could swing.

"I think I have enough chakra for this." Sasuke mumbled as he formed several hand signs to focus his chakra. "Fire Ball Jutsu!"

The jet-black haired shinobi then breathed fire from his lips and incinerated several heartless that stood in his way.

"Sasuke don't do it! You've used up too much chakra from our last fight!" Sakura pleaded as she tried to tend to his wounds.

As the fire subsided, Sasuke held the left side of his shoulder and whimpered in pain. It seemed so intense that it was made him twitch uncontrollably. To make matters worst, several more heartless rushed the two and their numbers wouldn't decrease nor would any of them let up. Sakura held on to Sasuke and closed her eyes tightly, expecting the pain to come, instead, there was a huge whirring sound, Kenji hurled his Key Blade in time to save the two. Taking this opening the heartless leaped into the air to ready an assault against the unarmed Key Blade master… Or was he?

"Watch out!" Naruto shouted at the disarmed Key Blade master, but Kenji couldn't help but to grin.

Kenji leaped out of the way, and in a flash of light, he called back his Key Blade and arched his Key Blade horizontally and vanquished his would be assassins. Suddenly, as if there was some sort of cue, they all ceased and faded back down into darkness. He couldn't complain or anything, but he couldn't help but to still be curious as to why on earth had they disappeared. For the heartless to attack just them was still a mystery and even more mysterious was why they came and went like they did.

'I have a bad feeling about this…' Kenji thought as even more questions popped into his mind firing like machine guns and exploding like rockets.

"Hey thanks, you saved our necks back there. The name's Naruto, and there are my team mates Sasuke and Sakura." Naruto introducing his team mates.

"My name is Kenji." The Key Blade master said grinning at the prospect of meeting a friend.

"Hey, where are your team mates?" Naruto wondered as Sasuke and Sakura noticed that too. "Are you taking the chunin exams alone this year?"

"Yeah…" Kenji said scratching the back of his head, starting to feel really uneasy with not only with the questions, but the thought of meddling with the world too much and how on earth would he be able to blend in. On top of that, he was concerned about the Heartless, who was behind them all, will they attack again?

"Hey, if you came here, you must already have your scrolls, right?" Sasuke said suddenly. "That must be why you're here."

"Uh… Do you mean these?" Kenji then took out the scrolls with two different markings that those other ninja gave him.

"Whoa, how did you get both of them on your own?" Naruto said looking at the scrolls in awe.

"I got lucky I guess." Kenji said trying his best not to reveal the details as to how he acquired the coveted scrolls as vague as he possibly could. "Where am I supposed to go now?"

"Well, come with us we're supposed to go to the tower when we do get these scrolls." Sakura explained as she helped Sasuke by carrying one of his arms across her shoulders.

Kenji followed the trio into the tower; there the structure looked rather plain, and much to his surprise the whole thing was actually clean. Inside, was a he saw a shinobi seemingly in his twenties, with a scar running right across his upper nose, with black suit, a green vest with so many pockets sewed on across it, and a peculiar head band with the same symbol as the one with Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura's. He had a brown clip board on one hand and a pencil with the other, writing things and going through the other documents clipped on the clip board. When he saw the trio, he gave a broad grin, as if happy to see the three in one piece.

"Iruka-Sensei!" Naruto shouted, rushing to his former sensei and giving him a long hug after what seemed to be like a long time. "It's been ages!"

"Heh! I had a feeling the three of you would make it!" Iruka said with a mixture of pride and joy from seeing them. "Well, looks like you three have grown since you graduated from the academy!"

"Yeah, believe it!" Naruto shouted proudly with his grin still as broad as ever.

"Well, I assume you three managed to get your scrolls?" Iruka said expecting a favorable answer from them.

"Yeah…" Sasuke said coolly, reaching into his pouch and pulled out scrolls similar to the ones that Kenji acquired and handed them to Iruka.

"And your scrolls and name?" Iruka said turning to Kenji.

"Oh yeah, here…" Kenji said as he too took out the scrolls which he'd rather not say how he acquired and handed them to Iruka as well. "And my name is Kenji."

'Strange, this one doesn't seem to have any sort of equipment with him, yet he somehow acquired scrolls?' Iruka thought examining Kenji down to the last strand of hair if he had any hidden weapons on him. 'No weapons… Even though he did get a few injuries on him, it must have been hard to go through even a day alone… I should report this to Anko.'

"Well this is surprising, this is the first solo-team I've seen that actually passed the exams this far." Iruka said surprised as he checked the authenticity of all scrolls to which his surprise were all not forged. "Alright you guys go on through the door, everyone else who passed this exam should be waiting inside."

Doing as they were told, the 4 moved through the double doors and found a large open space with only a pair of stair cases on parallel sides to connect them to the upper levels elevated and supported by a series of pillars. There they found at the very end, an elevated stage, designed so that they could get a clear view of what goes on around the wide open space, and on top of that there stood many figures, all of them shinobi because they all had headbands on and as well as the other shinobi examinees. Behind the standing figures, there was a pair of hands, forming some sort of hand sign, similar to what was used to perform the Nin-Jutsu that Kenji had seen earlier. Most of them weren't any older than they were, yet they somehow managed to get through that jungle? What was most peculiar was the short and seemingly old man dressed in robes of red and white as well as a red hat, this man also had a brown blow pipe which he was smoking. Right next to him was a man drenched with a black trench coat. To the old man's left was a woman in her twenties or so with purple hair, her overall body was covered with a thin layer of protective chains and a light brown trench coat, then next to her was a light purple haired man also in his twenties had an out-fit similar to Iruka's, he had a mask that covered his entire mouth, his headband covered the left side of his eye, and he was holding up a rather peculiar book that made him giggle uncontrollably. There was also a woman with long jet-black hair wearing a red long sleeve beneath a white vest, and next to her was a man who had a black hair with a bowl hair cut and had a long green overall that would make some puke out the food that they ate. Then there was another with raised black hair, and had a long beared around his chin, as well as wearing an outfit similar to Iruka's as well.

"Hmm… This is interesting there seems to be a lot of Genin that passed the exam." The elder man in robes said.

"Lord Hokage, I have something to report." It was Iruka. "It's just something peculiar, this boy who just passed the second exam on his own."

"Oh? Are you sure that his scroll wasn't a forgery?" the purple haired woman teased.

"It's genuine, Anko, but what was peculiar was that he had no weapons of any sort." Iruka stated which made the Hokage rub his chin, and Anko want to send the trainer back to the academy. "He's the kid next your team Kakashi."

"Oh? Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke passed did they?" Kakashi said rather lazily as if he anticipated it all to happen. "Well, looks like I win, the bet Gai…"

"Oh well, I suppose they're a lot more skilled than I thought…" conceded the man with the green overall and a bowl cut. "Looks not only did my team make it, but so did Asuma's and Kurenai's as well."

"Well, looks like you trained your team rather well, Asuma." Kakashi commented as he continued to read his book.

"Well, even if Shikamaru is a tad lazy, he can get the job done." The bearded shinobi said, surveying the teams who passed the exam. "And I heard that Kurenai's team made it faster than any of ours."

"Faster than any of ours for sure, because I trained them in tracking so they could figure out whom in the exam has the scrolls they needed." The long haired kunoichi said.

"Well, they weren't the fastest to be sure." Anko said, flipping through her papers. "Those sand ninja finished it under a day."

"Wait what?!" Asuma said in disbelief staring the 3 genin.

One was shorter than the others, and had crimson hair, he also had an unusually large gourd for who knows what, but the most peculiar thing was his eyes; not only did he have baggy eyes, although nobody couldn't point out what it was, it gave off a bad vibe. Next was drenched in a black overall and had purple face paint. He was carrying something strange, bandaged. Then there was a blonde with 4 pig tails at the back of her hair and had a peculiarly large fan at her back.

"The one with the gourd is Garaa, the one in black is Kankuro, and the girl's name is Temari." Anko read from her information sheet. "And the strangest thing about them was when they came, that Garaa came in without a scratch…"

Gai, Kakashi, Kurenai, Iruka and Asuma gasped at the revalation. There were indeed talented candidates amongst the crowd of who passed the second exam.

"Please, that Kenji could be a liability to the security of the Chunin Exams! He wasn't even registered to take the Exams!" Iruka said explaining his thoughts of the case. "He could be one of Orochimaru's hidden agents."

"Now that you said it, I don't recall seeing him before the second exams…" Anko said, recalling the events in her mind.

"Not likely… Orochimaru knows how the system of the Hidden Leaf works so he would have made a false document of some sort to hide him." the Hokage explained. "Orochimaru isn't sloppy. But nevertheless that still can't clear him of any suspicion."

"Lord Hokage, shall I interrogate him? I can force him to tell us." suggested the man clad with a jet black trench coat.

"No, that isn't a good idea, Ibiki. If he is one of Orochimaru's agents, then this may provoke him to do something rather drastic. Keep an eye on this boy for now." The Hokage explained.

"This doesn't look good Lord Hokage, I say post-pone the exams temporarily." Anko suggested to the elder shinobi.

"Hm… I'm inclined to agree to that… Perhaps a short and temporary one…" The Hokage said.

There was a buzz around not only amongst the figures up there, but also amongst the candidates. There was a great deal of confusion amongst them as to why there was a hold up on the long due continuation of their examinations. There was anxiety in the air as they continued chattering about things.

'I don't like the looks of these things…' Kenji thought.

"Surviving candidates of the Chunin Exams, I congratulate you for making it this far. I can only imagine that all of you are anxious to continue, but I regret to inform you that due to a security breach, we'll have to temporarily post-pone the exams." The Hokage announced through a speaker that blasted the bad news through out the tower.

There was a wide-spread of groans across the open room from the examinees. Some were disappointed, and some were relieved that they gave them all some sort of relief, a moment of reprieve to get their strength back. Though some were disappointed and some were relieved, Kenji couldn't help but to get a bad feeling about things, it seems as if he's getting a sharp tingling down his spine, telling him that something bad is about to happen.

Suddenly, an unfamiliar and ominous voice echoed through the room. "We told you not to stop the exams for any reason. Now that you have, I believe that some punishment is in order."

Then, out of nowhere a cloaked figure emerged from the darkness at the second level of the room. All attention turned to the mysterious figure. The cloaked figure's hood was on in such a way that it completely hid his face in its darkness.

"For this, you'll experience a small taste of the power of darkness…" the cloaked figure declared.

Then, out of the shadows, the cloaked figure drew a jet black Key Blade with a blade like hilt and blade, it's handle was as jet black as the rest of it's design, and it's tip was shaped with a blade of that of an axe. It was at that moment that Kenji realized what he was, and an image of what was really going on. The cloaked figure then leaped down onto the ground floor and as he raised his Key Blade into the air, heartless similar to the ones that attacked Naruto and his friends earlier appeared.

"These things again?!" Naruto shouted as he and his team mates drew kunai knives and readied themselves for battle. "Kenji, are you ready? Kenji?!"

But Kenji had already drawn his Key Blade and leaped into the air, straight towards the cloaked figure. Sensing Kenji, the cloaked figure raised his Key Blade the same time Kenji arched down his, creating a violent clash between the two blades.

"You're Kenji! It seems you survived your encounter with Master Veil." The cloaked figure said realizing who he was as the two pushed against each other for supremacy. "I don't know how you survived, but I'll make sure you don't get out alive, kid!"

"Bring it!" Kenji shouted.

The two leaped back a few ways and took their stances. The dark figure then rushed Kenji with blinding speed and arched his Key Blade horizontally across, but Kenji had other plans, he leaped back just enough to dodge the attack and went forward and swung his Key Blade diagonally upwards from the left. The cloaked figure barely dodges the lethal counter attack and arches his Key Blade downwards as Kenji raised his to block the incoming down strike. The Key Blade master then tilted his blade diagonally, causing the cloaked figure to lose his balance and tripped forward. Taking this chance, Kenji plunged his foot into the side of his abdomen, causing him to fall back hard. Then, the enraged Key Blade master rushed Kenji once more but this time with a lot more rage within himself. As he came within range, Kenji leaped into the air, just enough and slammed his Key Blade into the cloaked figure's collar bone. He slumped hard, feeling the damage taking it's toll on him, but he wasn't finished yet, he quickly turned and arched his Key Blade down, but Kenji not only raised his to block the incomming attack, but he also parried it aside, leaving his foe open. Kenji took that instance and slammed his Key Blade across his abdomen. The Dark Key Blade master clutched the area where he was only recently attacked and started no only breath hard, but whimper in pain. It was at that time when everyone managed to defeat all of the heartless, and by then, they all turned their attention on the duel between the two Key Blade users.

"Heh, you got me good, kid." The cloaked foe said slumping and clutching his abdomen, trying to soothe his pain, even just a little.

"Tell me, who are you and where is Veil?!" Kenji demanded pointing his Key Blade threateningly toward his opponent.

"The whereabouts of my master, well I don't feel like telling you that." The cloaked figure said, finally removing his hood, revealing a man with crimson red hair and pale skin. "As for my name, well, you can call me Veyn, one of Lord Veil's apprentices..."

"I'll ask one more time, where is Veil?!" Kenji demanded.

"Feh, wouldn't you like to know?" Veyn sneered as he bit his thumb and formed a series of hand signs, similar to what Naruto did before and slammed his palm into the ground. "Summoning Jutsu! I'll see you later if you manage to beat this!"

Then, Veyn disappeared into the darkness, but was replaced by a 5 story humanoid-shaped heartless, it's chest carved with a heart shape right through it. The heartless eyes glowed, and had small miniscule wings and it's hair was all over the place and disordered. Everyone stood in awe as they stared at their new opponent, and was scared beyond belief. The giant stared down to what seemed to be insignificant beings, little people whose life means nothing to him.

'Damn it! I don't have time to deal with this!' Kenji thought, but he was left with no choice as he took a stance and stared the heartless down from eye to eye.

The humanoid heartless raised his gigantic fist and slammed it into the ground, causing not only a massive tremor, but also a hole of darkness to emerge from the ground. Numerous heartless clad in silver armor, and wielding an arm-mounted sword rose, and rushed down not only Kenji, but also the other examinees as well as the figures that stood upon the platform. The whole room was once more thrown into panic and chaos as each shinobi fought off their bladed assailants. The dark giant swung his bulky arms straight for Kenji, hoping to take the Key Blade master down in one hit. Kenji raised his Key Blade vertically to block the arm from getting to him any further than it already has. Though the impact was reduced, Kenji was flung several ways back, and his back was slammed into the wall behind the stage the resulting impact not only caused an imprint of the Key Blade master into the wall, but it also knocked the wind out of him.

'That was careless…' the Key Blade master thought as he forced himself out of the hole that he made. 'I've got to take care of this thing fast or else…'

"Hey kid, you alright?" it was Kakashi, wearing his neutral face, not showing any emotions in either his face or tone. "That was one heck of a blow you just took."

"There's so many of them!" Naruto shouted as he parried an incoming attack and slammed his heels into the armored heartless.

The dark giant swept his muscular arms and swept another team of Genin, one was a girl wearing a thick gray sweater, blue hair and her eyes as pale as her skin, another was wearing a thick sweater, similar to the girls, and had a dog under it, and another had brown pants with a gray sweater, though not as thick as his other two team mates. The one with the dog and the girl with the blue hair seemed unconscious, leaving the one with sunglasses left to defend his other team mates. Then, several insects, came from not only from inside his jacket, but also his ears and perhaps anywhere there was a hole within his body.

"Hinata! Kiba! Shino get out of there!" Kurenai shouted ordering her platoon to get out.

The dark giant raised his fist once more, readying an attack as did the bug user started to take a stance, readying to defend not only himself, but also his other team mates. And as the heartless was about to pound the bug user, Kenji hurled his Key Blade to intercept the attack, and indeed it worked but it also caught the attention of the giant.

"Oh boy…" Kenji said under his breath, sensing trouble.

The core of the giant then began to glow a purple ominous aura and unleashed a barrage of jet black energy shots. In a flash of light, Kenji called back his Key Blade in time to deflect the incoming energy shots and rebounded each of them back to the giant, knocking it back though only a little bit.

Asuma leaped down from the stage to another team consisting of a blonde kunoichi wearing purple short-sleeve shirt and skirt, another had a spiky pony tail at the back of his hair, and was wearing a gray jacket and a thin chain mail similar to Anko's, and there was another one that was rather chubby, and had a thin green jacket and brown shorts.

"Shikamaru, what's the status? How do you think we can beat these things?" Asuma said drawing out a pair of black brass knuckles with blades attached at the end and vanquished another armored heartless.

"Well, these little ones are easy enough to deal with." The boy with the spiky pony tail stated as he plunged his kunai knife into another armored heartless. "But that big one is going to be a pain in the ass, because I've never seen anything like that thing."

"Choji, how are you holding up?" Asuma asked as he slammed his foot into another armored heartless.

"I'm mad that these guys are interrupting my lunch time!" Choji said angrily as he slammed a heartless with his fist, then smashed them with his knee.

"Is food all you think about?!" the skinny girl screeched as she kicked off a heartless.

"Calm down, Ino, at least he's enthusiastic." Shikamaru said lazily as he continued to give the giant heartless a calculating stare in hopes of finding a weak spot. "Ah! Asuma-sensei! Watch out!"

Then as Asuma disposed of a heartless, another leaped into the air and raised his arm-mounted blade, ready for an attack. Once more, Kenji hurled his Key Blade an vanquished the incarnation of darkness, and as he leaped down from the stage, he called back his Key Blade in a flash of light.

"Are you okay?!" Kenji asked the shinobi.

"Yeah! Thanks for the save kid!" Asuma said.

Several heartless rushed Kenji, then as they got within range they raised their arm-mounted sword, but the Key Blade master raised his blade to not only deflect the incoming blow, but parry it away to leave his foe off-guard, and took his chance to deliver a lethal blow through the abdomen. Not resting at all, Kenji arched his Key Blade down faster than the heartless could raise his sword to defend himself. He then continued his assault against the armored heartless and slashed diagonally upwards where their blade wasn't there to defend the incoming attack.

"That's it!" Chouji shouted angrily as he formed a hand seal. "Expansion Jutsu!"

And expand he did, as when the smoke cleared, his body became round and circular, (hence his name). Choji tucked his arms, legs and even his head inside and began to spin uncontrollably fast.

"Holy…" Kenji said in awe as he couldn't help to say because of what he just saw.

"Human Boulder Jutsu!" then, the ball that rolled uncontrollably launched itself against the mob of heartless, flattening any of them that dared to get in the way.

"Yeah! Go Choji!" Ino squealed, cheering for her team mate.

After flattening so many so mercilessly in such a short amount of time, the spinning ball of death made its way to the dark giant. But the heartless simply kicked it like a soccer ball, and was launched into the base of one of the pillars and forced it down like how a wrecking ball did. As the smoke cleared, Choji was knocked unconscious but was lucky none the less because neither the whole second floor nor the pillar collapsed on him.

"Wait a minute…" Shikamaru said suddenly. "If we can take that thing's legs down, then we might just stand a chance!"

As those words came into the Key Blade master's ear, his mind began to formulate a way to literally bring the giant down on his knees. Kenji grinned, he then lumped his Key Blade onto his shoulders and ran off out of sight.

"Aaah!" Sakura was then struck by one of the blades of the heartless and fell on the floor.

Ino came rushing to the pink haired girl, only to get slashed by the arm by the heartless herself. Then, the shinobi with the green overall rushed in and slammed his foot into the heartless as revenge for harming Sakura.

"Lee! Thanks, you saved me again." Sakura said clutching her wound to the ninja with a ridiculously large eye brow.

"Like I said before Sakura, I'll protect you!" Lee said with a grin as he took a stance, goading the heartless to come and attack him.

Then as the heartless rushed in, several kunai knives were hurled and plunged into their armor, vanquishing them right before everyone's eyes. And a young woman with a pink shirt and a pair of buns on her head came rushing in.

"Thank you, Ten Ten!" Lee said brightly.

"Just don't get careless!" the girl shouted, turning her attention to another boy with a long, straight hair, and having the same eyes as Hinata's. "Neji! Watch out!"

"Hmph, I think you should tell these cretins that instead of me…" the boy with the long hair said as his body began to emit a lot of chakra. "Rotation!"

Then, Neji spun around, creating a massive barrier of chakra that not only defended himself, but also took down so many heartless, but not before they were hurled so many feet back and landing painfully on the ground.

"Sakura!" it was the blonde, rushing to his team mate's aid. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, it's just a scratch." She said whimpering in pain that the heartless caused her. "Where's Sasuke?"

"He's fine, he's with Kakashi-sensei." Naruto recalled. "I'm more worried about Kenji."

Kenji found himself behind the dark giant, taking in deep breaths, and readying himself for the stunt that he was about to do.

"This had better work…" Kenji said under his breath drawing his Key Blade once more.

The Key Blade master then rushed between the legs of the dark giant, and slammed his Key Blade into its tendons. When he got through, the heartless giant fell on his knees, and spotted Kenji. It swung its left arms, but Kenji leaped just high enough to get on the hand, and once it's fist reached the ground, Kenji plunged his Key Blade down now only into the hand of the giant, but also the concrete. Then, Kenji rushed up through the giants arm while dragging his Key Blade painfully through as he ran through, and when he reached the shoulder, he pulled up his Key Blade and arched it downwards into the massive head of the heartless. Then, it started shaking violently, trying to get the Key Blade master off its shoulders. Kenji leaped down, but not before he hurled his Key Blade into the giant's face. The Key Blade went through it, forcing it to go down even lower with only its right arm supporting it. Kenji arched his Key Blade horizontally and slammed it across the giant's remaining arm, and brought it down even more. Then, the Key Blade master leaped into the air with his blade poised down to deliver the final blow. He plunged his Key Blade at the back of the giant's head, and then at last, the creature slowly dissipated and faded from the eyes of others. As the giant vanished the rest of the armored heartless faded as well as if it was their cue.

"Kenji!" Naruto shouted rushing to the Key Blade master who was down on his knee out of exhaustion and only had his blade to hold himself up. "Man that was sweet! You took that thing down!"

"Yeah…" Kenji said taking in as much air as he could and trying to regain his stamina. "Well, at least it won't bother us any more."

"Not bad! You brought that heartless down just like that… No wonder Master Veil wants you dead." A familiar voice echoed through the hall.

"Veyn!" Kenji shouted, searching for the Dark Key Blade master.

All heads turned to the statue of the pair of hands forming a hand seal, as out of the darkness, Veyn appeared at the finger tips of the statue. He gave Kenji a malicious grin as well as the rest of the examinees.

"This battle made me realize something : eversince you were plunged back to this time, you've lost all of your other powers, didn't you?!" Veyn said sadistically.

"Back to this time? What are you talking about?!" Kenji demanding an explaination.

"Oops, I said too much." Veyn sneered. "Until next time brat!"

"Wait!" Kenji shouted as he tried to run up to the disciple of Veil, but it was useless, not only was Kenji too exhausted to chase after him, Veyn had already faded back into darkness. "Damn it!"

"Who was that?" Naruto said helping up the Key Blade master.

"He was the one who summoned that huge thing to attack us." Kenji said gasping for more air. "He'll be back…"

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I bet you liked that chapter (mostly you Naruto fans). And just a small leak, this is just the beginning... XP

Oh and please leave reviews, I don't mind if they're annonymous or something...


	3. Chapter 3

The arena was in ruins, the tiles and plating on the walls, floors, and even roofs had either been damaged or had already come off. The floor was littered with debris from the battle that had just ensued. Not only was the arena in need of attention, but so did Sakura, Ino, Choji, Kiba, three other leaf shinobi whose names Kenji didn't know, and several Jonin who accompanied the Hokage were injured and hospitalized. The Key Blade master surveyed not only the structural damage, but also the injuries that the Heartless inflicted during their last assault. He knew right there and then that not only would there be more attacks like this, but also, now that everyone was involved with the affairs that he usually dealt with, their lives may never be the same again, and that they would start asking questions, especially ones that are best left unanswered.

The remaining Jonin as well as the Hokage were meeting in a cramped room just inside the tower. They had just enough seats to settle all those who still weren't hospitalized.

"The recent attack by those unknown creatures and that cloaked man indicates that they are all allied with Orochimaru." The Hokage began. "Anko, gather as much information as you can on them and step up the village security, make sure all ANBU are on the look out for that man and as well as anymore of those creatures within the village."

"Yes sir!" said the purple haired Kunoichi as she left without saying another word.

"Lord Hokage, about the boy named Kenji…" Kakashi started.

"Go on." The elder shinobi permitted.

"Well, to me it doesn't look like the one who attacked us and the kid is allied, in fact because the two did fight one can safely assume that they hate each other." Kakashi explained as everyone recalled the brief duel between the two Key Blade masters. "Not only that, but he took that giant head on."

"Hm… That is a good point Kakashi." The Hokage said rubbing his chin. "At the end of the announcements, I want you to bring Kenji in for questions, and if you have to, make him tell you everything we need to know. It's apparent that we can't stop these exams, or we'll risk another attack against those creatures."

The Jonin and their Hokage walked out to the crowd of curious and anxious Genin, not only were they worried about their injured team mates, but also what will become of the exams. Their anxiety started making them sweat, all except for the three sand shinobi. And once again, despite the assault, Garaa still didn't get any scratches on him, he just stood there, calmly with his arms crossed around his chest and still having that peculiar look in his eyes.

"Listen well, all of you… Because of the unusually large amount of Genin passing the second exam, we were about to stage a preliminary round. However, in light of the recent attack, we've decided to only pass the remaining examinees. Meaning that only those of you remain are the only ones who pass." The elder explained.

There was a massive uproar amongst some of the Genin. It wasn't fair that their other team mates wouldn't get a shot just because of some random incident.

"Now, you'll have three weeks to prepare for the final rounds of the Chunin Exams, I suggest you use it to train yourself to acquire new techniques." The Hokage suggested. "That is all, you are all dismissed, and may we see you 3 weeks from now, ready to fight in the final rounds."

With that, everyone escorted to a secret passage way where they took a tunnel outside the forest. Everyone so was relived that they were able to get out of that dense forest, and that they are able to breath the fresh air once again.

"Feh… It's as I've said countless times, you can't escape destiny…" Neji smirked. "It's better for them that they were eliminated this way instead of being humiliated in a fight."

"What the hell did you just say!?" Naruto shouted. "What's your deal?!"

"I'm just saying that those who were hospitalized were going to lose in a battle anyway." Neji said a cold and calculating manner. "Unlike you, I can see that everyone of those Genin would have thoroughly humiliated, and that for the sake of their pride, it's better that they did get eliminated that way."

Without hesitation, Naruto rushed Neji, only to have not only Kenji trying to restrain him, but for Rock Lee to slide in the way of the completely irritated blonde shinobi. It was a struggle for Kenji as he hasn't recovered from the last battle yet, he tried hard not to show it, but he was in pain, and was barely able to hold him back.

"Naruto, I know what you mean, believe me I know!" Rock Lee pleaded to the blonde. "But the rules say that all fighting is to be done in the ring."

"I agree with him, you don't want to get into this kind of trouble." Kenji grunted.

"A failure beating a genius through sheer will power… Now that would be an exciting match…" Rock Lee said.

Those words of Rock Lee not only put a grin into Naruto's face, and made him calmer, but it also gave the blonde something to look forward to… An underdog rising above all odds, it is indeed a show worth seeing.

"You'd better hope that we don't fight in the final rounds, because if we do… I'll be sure to knock you down! I vow to win!" Naruto declared raising his fist and pointing it at the smirking Hyuga.

"Hey Naruto, calm down, we should go see how Sakura is doing in the hospital." Kenji said trying to douse the fire in Naruto's eyes.

"Yeah, I guess you're right…" the blonde grumbled.

The Key Blade master let out a sigh of relief, as it was lucky that things didn't turn out ugly. Sasuke went with Kakashi somewhere, while Rock Lee, Ten Ten and Neji left with their Sensei: Guy, and went off somewhere to probably celebrate them passing this part of the exams. Kenji and Naruto both went off to the hospital, where many of the injured Genins' parents were in after hearing their child getting injured. They had worry was plastered across their faces as they're all hoping that none of them were too injured. Both Kenji and Naruto went up to the front desk and rang the bell.

"May I help you?" the desk nurse responded.

"Do you know where Sakura Haruno is? We're her friends, and we want to see if she's alright." Naruto explained.

"Well, isn't that sweet, that you came to visit her." The nurse teased. "She's at the 2nd floor with all the other Genin that were injured."

With that, the two took the Nurse' directions, they arrived at the room where Sakura laid down as she stared out the window; she had the usual hospital garments on. Naruto gave a grin to the pink haired kunoichi as he rushed up to her.

"Hey Sakura! How are you doing?" Naruto said.

"I'm fine." Sakura replied. "How about Sasuke?"

"Well, Kakashi-sensei took him somewhere… I don't know where though…" Naruto said recalling the events.

"Hm… I see…" Sakura said in a worried tone.

Then, a man wearing a mask decorated with the head of a bird, as well as a gray light protective chest gear with several paddings on his fore arms and shins over a black suit and a sword hanging from his back. Though his eyes were hidden behind those masks, it was obvious he was staring at the Key Blade master, and chances are, that he didn't have the friendly ones.

"You're Kenji, am I right?" he stated. "I am with the ANBU black ops of the hidden leaf village. You need to come with me."

"What for?" Naruto said suddenly.

Though it was almost impossible to see, it was obvious when the masked shinobi reared his head towards Naruto, he had anger in his heart. If it were silent, you could hear him breathing hard behind that mask.

"This doesn't concern you, fox boy." He said coldly. Not only was he cold, but he had hate in his tone… Hate and fear, but why?

Suddenly, a nurse came in just in the nick of time.

"Sir, you'll have to please stop… The patient is still recovering." The nurse said calmly.

"Out of my way, bitch!" the ANBU spat as with a flung of his arm, he knocked down the nurse.

"What the heck was that for?! She was only asking you to stop!" Sakura shouted with aggravation in his tone. "Why are you so hostile to Naruto? He hasn't done anything to you."

"Shut up! This has nothing to do with you!" the ANBU raising his voice.

Sakura could sense that something was up, but where did all this hostility come from? The same questions popped into the Key Blade master's mind as well in almost the same time. There was this sudden hostility towards the kid who didn't do anything and yet there was some kind of violent reaction… Could there be a story behind all of this?

"H-Hey, please, Naruto hasn't done anything wrong!" Sakura pleaded with worry in her tone.

"Yeah, just come back ten years from now, and you'll see how horrible he really was!" the ANBU spat.

Suddenly, the masked shinobi drew the sword from his back, poised to kill the blonde shinobi. The Sakura gasped at the treacherous thing the ANBU was about to do, killing one of his own without a reason…

"This is for my parents, demon!" the ANBU shouted as he arched his sword downwards but, Kenji drew his Key Blade to block the attack. "Don't get in the way brat!"

"Demon?! Stop that! He's just a kid who hasn't done anything to you!" Kenji shouted as he pushed away the ANBU with his Key Blade.

The masked shinobi made another mad dash forward, and swung his sword at full force horizontally, but Kenji raised his Key Blade sideways to block the incoming blade. Seeing an opening, the ANBU plunged his boots into the Key Blade master and sent him crashing out through the window. Kenji landed on his feet on the dirt outside, the air was filled with dust, and he was barely able to see the ANBU jumping out the window and was even barely able to roll out of the way.

"Why the hell are you trying to attack us?!" Kenji demanded as he took a defensive stance, keeping his Key Blade across his upper body. "We haven't done anything to you!"

"Because that brat is nothing more than a demon and you are one of Orochimaru's agents!" the ANBU shouted with paranoia in his tone.

The masked shinobi hurled several shuriken from his pouch, but Kenji had already leaped into the air, avoiding the spinning blades of death. The Key Blade master was in the air, ready to arch his blade down wards. Though the ANBU raised his sword to defend against the assault, the Key Blade slashed through the sword, and went through to his collar bone. There was a loud crack that could be heard as the masked shinobi fell on his knees, clutching his shoulders and was whimpering in pain. Kenji poised his blade in the ANBU's face. It was then that Naruto and Sakura along with the nurse that the ANBU knocked down came down from the hospital.

"Now don't bother Naruto again." Kenji said as he withdrew his Key Blade in a flash of light, turned around and walked towards his two friends.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked examining the Key Blade master if he had any injuries.

"Aaaaah!" suddenly, there was a high pitched scream coming from the ANBU. There were several heartless that surrounded the masked shinobi. "Get away from me!"

These heartless had a humanoid shape, they took on a striking resemblance of that of a shinobi as each had swords in one hand as well as kunai knives on the other. They had small pouches; undoubtedly for carrying shuriken and more of those explosive notes. Though they took on the shape of a ninja, they still had those empty yellow eyes that crave to literally tear the heart out of anything that lives. The heartless before the masked shinobi came forward, and raised his blade to deliver a final blow, but Kenji got to the dark creature first and cleaved the cretin in half, though he saved his assailant, he also caught the attention of the rest of the heartless.

'Not good… Where did these heartless come from?!' Kenji thought.

"No you don't!" Naruto shouted as he rushed in with his index and middle fingers crossed. "Shadow clone jutsu!"

Then, just like before he replicated himself into 5 in a puff of smoke. All 5 replicas charged down the heartless shinobi, giving them a good pounding as soon as each solid replicas got hold of one. Though each clone bashed the heartless and forced each back into darkness, more came in the way and did the same to each clone, making them all vanish in a puff of smoke.

"It's these things again!" Naruto shouted taking out a Kunai knife and hurled a pair of shuriken only to have it deflected by the blades of the heartless.

Suddenly, shuriken were fired seemingly from nowhere, they were showered with such precision, only nailing the dark creatures. These spinning tools of death were fired at such random areas, that neither Naruto, Kenji nor Sakura was able to find who or where they were thrown from as sent each of them back to the darkness from which they came. Suddenly, Kakashi along with several of his replicas on trees, atop the hospital as well.

"Nice! One, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted out cheerfully as their sensei managed to bail them out of another jam.

The replicas of Kakashi suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke just as the real Kakashi leaped down from a tree, and to his students as well as the Key Blade master. He had his hands in his pocket, showing that neutral expression as usual.

"Hey you…" Kakashi said to the ANBU. "Why are you fighting with the kid? You were only supposed to bring him in for questioning."

"Well, he resisted sir!" the ANBU lied.

Kenji, Naruto and Sakura couldn't believe the lies coming from the shinobi's ears. He was supposed to be an ANBU, a shinobi of a high rank, and yet he tells of such lies?

"Liar! You attacked Naruto and Kenji!" Sakura shouted still in her hospital garments.

"Yeah, she's right, he attacked and called Naruto a demon." Kenji stated recalling the event.

"Demon, eh?" Kakashi said turning to the masked ANBU with disgust and disappointment. "You do realize what you've done, haven't you? You just broke the decree of the 3rd Hokage…"

"They lie!" the ANBU retorted.

"If this is what we get for saving your ass, then maybe Kenji should've let those things finish you!" Naruto shouted.

"Enough, Naruto… If you aren't lying, then it'll show on the security footage on Sakura's room." Kakashi said simply.

"That won't be necessary…" the Nurse said. "I heard everything, and what the children say is true."

"Why?! I was trying to avenge the death of your parents! That brat was the one who killed them!" the ANBU spat. "He deserves what he should've gotten!"

'Naruto deserves to die? What in the world is this guy talking about?' Kenji thought as even more questions popped in his head.

"Enough!" Kakashi said coldly as with a snap of his fingers, a whole group of ANBU appeared in an instant behind Kakashi. "Take him to prison…"

"Yes sir!" they all said at the same time as they chained the struggling ANBU. Once the rouge shinobi was secure, they all disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Man… What a headache…" Kakashi said pinching the top of his nose in hopes of easing that ache in his head caused by the ANBU as he turned to Kenji. "Alright kid, you've got to come with me…"

"Wait! What for?" Naruto asked hoping for an answer.

"Relax, Naruto, we're just going to ask him a few questions, that's all. In fact, I think you should also come too." Kakashi said calmly, explained to the hyper active blonde.

Kenji gave a long sigh… Realizing that if he didn't want the same thing to repeat, he figured that he may as well go with him. Naruto along with Kenji decided to tag along with Kakashi. But that was only one of the things in the Key Blade master's mind that bothered him…

'What's the deal with that guy? Naruto couldn't have done anything wrong, and even ten years ago, that would be impossible because I'd have to say he was probably just a baby back then!' Kenji thought as he grew more and more curious as to the reason of that ANBU's sudden hostility. 'Maybe there is a story behind all of that after all.'

"Hey, where are we going exactly?" the Key Blade master asked.

"Well, for one thing, it's not an interrogation; we just want to ask you questions." Kakashi said simply.

"Interrogation for what?" the clueless blonde wondered.

"About the attack during the Chunin Exams…" Kakashi said simply.

Kenji gave a long sigh, he knew that this was going to happen eventually. Interfering with the affairs of the world was prohibited, and this was the reason. But nonetheless, it's something that has to be done if one could hope to save this world from annihilation. Kenji pinched the top of his nose in hopes of soothing the headache caused by what he was about to do. The blue haired Jonin led the two to a single story building, inside was none other than Ibiki Morino, the sadistic first proctor of the Chunin Exams, as well as the Hokage himself. The mere sight of Ibiki sent chills down Naruto's spine, as he recalled the previous events on what happened on the first exam before… The trench coated man couldn't help but to rear his head to the blonde.

"Ah, you…" Ibiki chuckled. "From the first exams…"

"This is Ibiki Morino." The Hokage said introducing the sadistic looking man to the two. "He's just here to make sure you tell the truth."

"The truth, huh? That's what I actually planned on telling that from the beginning." Kenji said calmly. "If you guys really want to survive, then I have to tell you guys the truth…"

"Well then, care to start from the beginning?" Kakashi said.

Kenji gave a long sigh in preparation to the long story that he was about to tell them. Kenji told them all he knew, from the Key Blade to the Heartless along with the Key Blade wars and all the worlds it ravaged. The boy continued on with the battle against Veil, where he summoned Kingdom Hearts, absorbed some of its energy to become this near God-like entity of supreme power. They were dumbfounded of the words that came out of the Key Blade master's mouth.

"And after landing in that forest, I was ambushed by a bunch of shinobi, but I took them down and they gave me the scrolls I needed to go on, and after that, well, you guys know the rest." Kenji said taking a deep breath from his story telling.

"So, there are these Dark Key Blade masters known as the Scions of the Void who want to take control of each world, and you and the rest of the Key Blade masters are at war with them." Ibiki recited still disbelieving the words that were spoken just now. "And these weapons you hold, they are known as Key Blades?"

"Yeah…" Kenji said as he lifted his hand, and in a flash of light, he called his Key Blade to him. "This is a Key Blade. And those creatures back there are known as heartless."

"So, the Heartless go from world to world, in hopes of trying to steal hearts." Naruto said as he too had a hard time believing his new comrade's words.

"Those heartless were about to take that one guys heart, but I managed to stop them…" Kenji said as Naruto recalled the ANBU's assault against the two. "No matter what happens, nobody deserves that kind of fate."

"I see… This is a problem…" the Hokage said giving a long sigh as he could feel a headache coming in.

"To add on to the problem, we have reasons to believe that these Dark Key Blade masters are working with Orochimaru." Ibiki said as the adults realized the problem that they were facing.

"Wait, who's Orochimaru?" Kenji asked as he remembered hearing that name before from his assailant.

"Perhaps it is best that you did know… You see, Orochimaru was once a shinobi of our village, he was one of the best, in fact, he was one of my pupil… And ever since he was denied the title of Hokage, the leader of our village, he turned on all of us." The old man explained as Kenji's eyes widened. "I suppose with the help of his new allies, he may have enough power to attack the village. We must prepare for the worst… Ibiki!"

"Yes sir!" the scarred man said as he came into attention.

"We need to have an emergency council meeting, gather all the Jonin and Chunin along with the elders. We can't stop the exams because these Heartless may attack again." The Hokage explained. "Tell them that I request an emergency meeting regarding new developments. And Kakashi, have you taken care of Sasuke?"

"Yes, he should be fine now…" Kakashi reported as Ibiki disappeared almost instantly.

"What's wrong with Sasuke?" the blonde shinobi wondered.

"Well, something happened to him during the exams… I can't exactly say what it is yet though…" Kakashi said with worry in his tone. "In either case, because of these incidents, I'll have missions to do, so I requested a substitute to train you for the exams in my place…"

"Say what?! A substitute?!" Naruto shouted in disbelief. "No way! I want you to train me instead!"

"It can't be helped Naruto, and besides, the one I asked to train you will be better than I am…" Kakashi said calmly.

"I don't give a flying fuck on which trainer you picked out! I want you to train me!" Naruto protested.

Then, the door opened, revealing a shinobi in a navy blue overall, and instead of a head band, he has a bandana with a plate that had the leaf symbol on it "You should listen to your sensei more, Naruto." He said.

"This is Ebisu-Sensei, he'll train you for the next few weeks…" Kakashi stated as he expected a rather large protest from the hyper-active blonde shinobi.

"Gah! It's you!" Naruto said in horror, as if he had seen a ghost. "No way! I'm not training with this closet pervert!"

"Closet… what?" Kakashi said dumbfounded.

"You should've seen it! When he saw my harem jutsu, he pr—" but the before the blonde shinobi could finish his rant, Ebisu, the so called closet pervert rushed up to him and shut the blonde shinobi's mouth before he could say anymore…

"Listen… I'll buy you ramen or whatever just shut up about that!" Ebisu said in a barely audible tone, as Kenji had gotten a general idea of what happened and began to snicker uncontrollably.

"Harem Jutsu? What are you talking about?" Kakashi now curious as to what happened between the two eyed Naruto with a penetrating stare.

"Ahahaha! Oh nothing… It was just a joke we shared." The shinobi trainer said giving off a hollow laughter, hoping to throw off the suspicions coming from the blue haired Jonin.

"I see… Well, I know this is a lot more trouble than I asked you to handle, but can you take Kenji as well?" Kakashi requested as the Key Blade master stopped snickering instantly and had a sour face plastered right across it. "Seeing as though he's already proficient with his sword techniques, I'd like you to help him focus with chakra control."

"Say what?!" Kenji protested.

"Come on, you said you lost your powers, right? Well, you need to have something to be able to defend yourself with." Kakashi explained. "Just train with the guy, and who knows, you might be able to pick something up."

"Fine…" Kenji sighed, giving into the light-blue haired shinobi's request. "Anyway, what is chakra?"

Naruto began to laugh uncontrollably with the question that came from the Key Blade master. What was chakra? They did mention it before, but what was it?

"You're in no position to laugh, Naruto…" Kakashi said to his pupil. "You keep mispronouncing chakra."

Kenji began to snicker uncontrollably as his comrade put on a sour face after realizing that he indeed mispronounced chakra… Or whatever that was. Ebisu led Naruto and Kenji to a stand with the smell of cooking about in the air. There were several stools along with a long table to eat whatever that was going to be served. Behind the tables, there was what seemed like a kitchen with pots boiling with something that obviously tasted really good; and a door to the back of the bar which is most likely where they stored all of their supplies. Kenji's stomach grumbled as he realized that he hasn't eaten anything even before he landed in this crazy world.

"Woohoo! Ichiraku Ramen!" Naruto said uncontrollably as his mouth began to slightly drool over what seemed to be his favorite food. "Ramen time! Ramen time!"

Then, a middle aged man with an apron and a chef's hat came out along with a young woman with brown hair, who's probably in her 20's, donning the same outfit as the middle aged man. They greeted their customers with a smile in their faces. The young woman then checked the boiling pot of noodles, after giving it a whiff; she gave a look of approval, indicating that the noodles were ready.

"Alright you two, lunch is on me." Ebisu said generously as those words put a wide grin across Naruto's face and drool running across his lips.

"Hey old man Teuchi! Get me some beef ramen!" Naruto requested to the Ramen Chef.

"I guess I'll have…" Kenji then looked at the menu right above the Ramen Chef's head, and scanned it thoroughly. "I'll have some chicken teriyaki ramen."

"And I'll have some miso ramen." The Jonin trainer said as he too was a bit hungry.

Then, in almost no time at all, the ordered Ramen came. The steaming smell of those delicious noodles added with meat smelled especially delicious. Naruto quickly went through his first bowl of ramen even before Kenji or Ebisu had a chance to finish half of their bowl of noodles. Naruto quickly ordered another… and another… Though Ebisu hadn't noticed it yet, Naruto was in his 5th bowl of ramen already it was by that time Ebisu and Kenji finished their bowl of Ramen.

"Okay you two, listen up, we're going to have to train both of you on chakra control." Ebisu began.

"Why? Chakra control is like baby training!" Naruto shouted as he continued to scarf down his 6th bowl of ramen, as Kenji's eyes widened in horror on how much this one kid is eating in one lunch meal.

"Well, your sensei told me that it's the only thing you're having such an issue with." Ebisu replied to the blonde shinobi whom was already at his 8th bowl of noodles. "And as for you Kenji, since you have no experience with chakra at all, then it's perfect timing that I trained the both of you."

"Well, what can I do with chakra anyway?" Kenji asked----

"I'm sure that you've already seen chakra in action when several other shinobi execute their Nin-Jutsu, which is one of the several things that we'll be training for the next few weeks." Ebisu explained. "Nin-Jutsu is executed through focusing chakra through the use of hand seals."

"Nin-Jutsu…?" Kenji said curiously. His curiosity was quickly put to rest as he remembered his battle with the 3 shinobi back at the forest who were also using their Nin-Jutsu as well as Veyn who used a jutsu to summon a heartless. "Oh yeah!"

"Here, let me show you my favorite!" Naruto said enthusiastically as he crossed his index and middle fingers together. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Then in a puff of smoke, a replica of Naruto appeared on the other seat. The clone waved hi to everyone and disappeared as how it materialized in the first place.

"Shadow Clones, huh?" Kenji said in bewilderment as he once more recalled that one Nin-Jutsu that the shinobi named Bane did… When turned one shuriken into a deadly shower of sharp metallic spinning tools of death. "Hey, can you clone anything else besides yourself?"

"Of course, you'll need to transfer your chakra to the object that you want then execute the jutsu." Ebisu explained to the Key Blade master who tried hard to absorb all of what his new sensei was saying. "Well, you'll get to that later, but first the basics… You can't do any of those if you can't master the basics first."

"Yeah…" Kenji said disappointedly with his head falling down to the table of the ramen bar.

"Okay, I think we should get started." Ebisu declared as he finally rose from his seat.

"Hey! Your bill!" the ramen chef said suddenly.

"Oh silly me… Gah!!" Ebisu's sentence was then unexpectedly interrupted when he finally saw all the bowls of ramen Naruto ate, along with the stuffed blonde himself who was rubbing his stomach in satisfaction of his meal.

"That was good eats! Good thing it was your treat!" Naruto said as he continued to tend to his inflated stomach.

'Is this why everyone was so mad at Naruto?' Kenji thought at the possibility, but isn't likely.

"NARUTO!!!" Ebisu squealed as he handed over everything that he had on his wallet to the ramen chef until it was flatter than a day old soda once he left the ramen bar.

Having very little time to train the basic chakra control, and a bad mood because Naruto drained the Jonin's fundings, Ebisu decided to force Kenji to climb a tree as he focused chakra on his feet. He was to keep getting higher and higher, if he didn't make any progress at all, the sadistic Ebisu would "inspire" the Key Blade master by searing his butt with a fire ball jutsu if he didn't go any higher. Kenji was so driven through fear that the young Key Blade master would attempt to go higher and higher as to avoid having his ass look like fried chicken. It was until the Key Blade master was finally lying on the ground, completely drained of his energy. Kenji managed to climb about 12 feet up to the tree until his whole body gave out.

"Crap…" Kenji muttered to himself as he tried to move his body but to no avail, they wouldn't budge an inch. "Damn… I'm at my limit…"

"Hm… He's worn out… Alright, next up, Naruto!" Ebisu ordering the blonde shinobi who deprived his wallet of it's stuffing. "I know you've been doing the tree climbing exercise, so I'll have a much higher expectation of you."

"Say what?! Oh whatever…" Naruto mumbled, taking his position before the tree. The blonde then focused his chakra to his feet and dashed upwards high through the tree. It was until he reached about 25 feet when he started to go down and lose his momentum.

The hyper active blonde used his kunai knife and plunged it into the tree, slowing himself down. Naruto managed to land on the ground safely, and on his feet like a cat. Kenji was at awe at how high Naruto climbed already. It was at that time when the sun began to set upon the village, and darkness began to fall.

"That's enough for today, so go home and rest, because tomorrow, you two will start training again." Ebisu declared to his two trainees. "You're dismissed…"

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Review please, I don't care if it's annonymous or not.


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto decided to let Kenji stay at his place… Seeing as though his place was a mess, he thought that he could use someone to help himself clean it up, much to the Key Blade master's dismay. It took a few hours to get everything to be clean, and seemingly presentable. After cleaning up the dust filled pigsty that Naruto called an apartment that the two had ramen for dinner.

"Man, do you eat ramen all the time?" Kenji buzzed as he continued to watch Naruto devour all of his noodles, thinking that he doesn't chew any of them at all.

"Well yeah, it's my favorite!" the blonde replied with a wide grin. "Hey, do you like anybody?"

"Er… Yeah…" Kenji said with his face turning red.

"Well? Who?" Naruto said egging the Key Blade master to fuel his curiosity. Seeing as though his face did turn red, he really must like someone.

"Well, her name is Iris…" Kenji said recalling all those time with her. He had a sudden flash back on all the times he was with her, and the first time her met her. "She's pretty, funny, and somehow, she makes me feel… Happy… I don't know how, but she just does…"

"Oh…? Sounds like you like her…" Naruto stating the obvious with a broad grin across his face, as he already expecting what the answer was.

"Yeah…" Kenji said with his face getting redder by the second. "But right now, I'm just worried…"

"About what?" Naruto inquired with a curious look on his face.

"Well, it's just that I haven't seen her anywhere ever since I came here." Kenji explained. "With Veil having Kingdom Hearts as well as all that power… I hope that everyone is still alright… But enough about that, who do you like?"

"Sakura, hands down." Naruto said simply as the Key Blade master recalled the pink-haired kunoichi who always was trying to hold Sasuke in her arms. "But, she really has a bad taste in guys."

"Because of that guy Sasuke, huh?" Kenji stated.

"Yeah… Well, don't get me wrong, Sasuke is alright, but he's kind of stuck up sometimes, and he has this large ego that really ticks me off sometimes." Naruto explained.

"What made you like Sakura in the first place?" Kenji wondered.

"Well…" Naruto said as he began having a flash back.

-FLASH BACK-

_Naruto at this time was barely 7 years old, and he was walking along the forest until he saw this pink haired girl crouching and crying as she stared at the flowers. She was crying so hard, it was as if she was crying for the sole purpose of watering the plants. Her hair was a little messy, as if she herself had been ashamed of it._

"_Hey, why are you crying?" Naruto pried as the pink-haired girl almost immediately stopped crying to look at him._

"_I-It's those girls! They're making fun of me because of my hair…" she continued sobbing._

"_Hey, its okay…" the blonde soon-to-be shinobi said as he held her shoulder to comfort the crying girl. "It's probably because they're jealous."_

_It was with those actions that she almost immediately stopped crying. She soon dried her tears and felt as if she was safe with this young boy whom he had just barely met. It was something peculiar about him… Was it his broad grin that made it so? In either case, the two started to exchange words and tales of so many things from what had happened to them that day or any other day, to anything else they could think of. It was as if this smile of Naruto's was a contagious one, in a good way._

"_You're funny…" she giggled._

"_Yeah, but what's even more funny is I never got your name." the young Naruto chuckled._

"_It's Sakura… Sakura Haruno…" she said as she was completely entranced with the boy's smile… or was it something else?_

"_SAKURA!" _

"_Uh-oh, it's my mom…" Sakura said apprehensively, wondering what could have made her mother that upset._

_Then, a kunoichi came from out of nowhere and snatched the pink-haired girl away. She wore the standard shinobi uniform and also had a headband with the mark of the leaf village. But what was strange about her wasn't the fact that she took Sakura away for no apparent reason, but it that she was glaring at Naruto. Even stranger was the fact that it wasn't anger that fueled that glare, it was fear…_

"_Mom! What's going on?!" Sakura shouted as she was now scared, she had never seen her mother like this._

"_Stay away from my daughter you monster! Isn't it enough that you took my husband from me?!" the kunoichi said with pure fear in her tone._

"_W-wait!" but before the blonde could say anymore, Sakura's mother kicked the young blonde and forcing him several feet back._

_Naruto could still feel the foot that was plunged into his chest, even after he got up from the uncalled assault. Though the pain throbbed uncontrollably, what hurt more was the boy's heart… Not only was he assaulted once again by some random villager, but when he thought that he found someone he could talk to, she was literally taken away from him._

"_Leave us alone!" she shrieked as she ran off with her daughter sobbing once again despite the fact that she was held by her own mother._

-END OF FLASHBACK-

"After that, even after we became team mates, she never talked to me like that ever again…" Naruto said, reminiscing only one of his many painful memories.

The Key Blade master was at the end of his ropes. No matter how much he thought about it, nothing made sense… Why would people of his village no less label this kid as a monster? It just doesn't add up… Sure his grin can give you an occasional headache, but it doesn't make any sense. Though Kenji pinched his upper nose to soothe the throbbing headache he's feeling now after trying to figure out why this is like this, he couldn't stop the pain that his heart was feeling… Though he didn't ask for it, the boy knew what kind of pain Naruto was feeling, the confusion, anger, and so many other emotions that would make you want to go up and destroy the world… His heart ached for him, and he didn't know why…

"Why…?" Kenji pried once again. "Why would they do that to you?"

The blonde sighed, he knew it was inescapable, and he knew that his tale had to be told for all of it to make sense. Though it would be easier to peace, he knew that it would only lead to so much more confusion. It was as if it was his cue as Naruto drew his breath to begin his tale did Kakashi jump on the window, causing both Naruto and Kenji to almost jump right out of their seats.

"Do you really want to know?" Kakashi queried to the Key Blade master.

"Yeah…" he responded, nodding his head with assurance to his words.

"Okay… It's all began just as Naruto was born, a demon known as the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked our village." The expressionless shinobi began while the Key Blade master settled himself in for what seemed to him was going to be a long story. "We tried to defend ourselves against it with our strength, but it was no use, it only caused the death of a countless number of our brave shinobi. Then 4th Hokage, who was the strongest shinobi in our village… No… Probably of all time stepped in to put a stop to the demon's rampage, but he wasn't strong enough to defeat it, but instead he sealed it within a new born child, at the cost of his own life. And that child was Naruto…"

"Wha…!" Kenji was speechless; he hadn't realized that something of that magnitude was actually within Naruto.

"The 4th Hokage used Naruto as a vessel to seal the monster away." Kakashi then finally took a breath as the tale had finally ended.

"But that still doesn't explain why everyone else treats him like a piece of shit!" Kenji said still demanding an explanation.

"The people of this village thought that Naruto is in fact that very demon that he imprisons, and because of that, the children also senses their hostility and also begin to distance themselves away from him." Kakashi explained. And strange enough, the Key Blade master couldn't help but to laugh.

"What's so funny?!" Naruto shouted demanding an explanation.

"I'm just laughing at the fact that these villagers are such idiots." Kenji's laugh then soon began to subside. "If anything, they should treat you like a hero, because if it weren't for you, all of hell would have literally broken loose right now… But in any case, I'm going to go outside for some fresh air…"

Kenji sat on the roof and stared into the clear night sky. He tried looking into the stars, hoping that somehow, they'd tell him how his friends are faring without him. Each time he'd think of his friends, Iris would always come into his mind. It's strange, it's as if she was all that he could think of…

'I wonder… Is this what it means to fall in love?' Kenji thought to himself, as he racked his brains for the answer. 'Iris… If only I could've told you how I've felt…'

"Yo…" it was none other than Kakashi himself, he leaped on the roof just behind the Key Blade master. "What are you doing up here?"

"Just clearing my thoughts…" Kenji replied to the expressionless shinobi. "I assume because you aren't attacking Naruto or any of that crap means that you believe that he isn't that demon?"

"Yeah… And besides… I kind of feel obliged to train him…" Kakashi explained.

"Obliged?" Kenji said now curious as to what he meant.

"Let's just say, I owed someone… That and I felt as if it was something that I have to do…" Kakashi said being as vague with his explanations as possible, causing Kenji to be even more curious.

"Really?" Kenji said trying to pry into the shinobi in hopes of satisfying his curiousity.

"Well, it's getting late, I think I'll be going home now…" Kakashi said standing up. "I'm turning in, I suggest you do the same because you have lots of training ahead of you tomorrow…"

With that, Kakashi leaped away from the roof and onto the streets as he walked on home. Kenji and Naruto followed suite as Naruto slipped into his pajamas and slumped into his bed. Kenji crashed in Naruto's living room and drifted off into sleep on one of his couches.

Meanwhile, at the top of the mountain where the faces of the Hokage were forever sculptured into the land for all to see, something shady was going on. There was a shinobi seemingly in his mid 30's with a tan vest over a brown overall, wearing a head band indicating that he hailed from the Hidden Sand Village, as well as a younger man with blue hair, and a head band with the leaf's symbol were talking.

"So you like what he can do, eh Kabuto?" the sand shinobi said with a satisfying grin.

"Hm… So, he's one after all, huh?" the young leaf shinobi stated. "You've been lucky so far that he hasn't killed you yet, Baki…"

"Yes, I have been lucky… But where is that Veyn? He's supposed to meet us here…" Baki said impatiently.

"Looking for me?" then, the dark Key Blade master walked out of the dark portal that came seemingly from nowhere.

"You're late…" Kabuto said as he to was a little irritated.

"I had errands to do for master Veil…" Veyn explained as he turned to Kabuto. "So, will Orochimaru hold up his end of the plan?"

"Of course…" Kabuto said reassuringly.

"Our forces will also be ready to move out on that day…" Baki stated.

"Good… And by the end of all of this, the leaf will fall…" Veyn said with a sadistic grin to both of his allies.

As the 3 talked on regarding their plans, somebody was right around the corner, listening in horror as they unveiled their plans of destruction. It was the same baggy-eyed man from the exams, only he was carrying a katana on his back. His eyes widened as he continued to listen, he couldn't believe that the sand would dare betray them like that.

"Hm… Good… But first thing's first… Hayate, you can come out now, we know that you're here…" Kabuto said with a sadistic grin across his face.

With that, the baggy-eyed spy leaped and ran as fast as his two legs could carry him.

"I'll go after him… After all, I'm itching see my old powers back to me…" Veyn said as he moved out in a flash of light to intercept the spy.

The pursuit atop the roofs lasted awhile, as Hayate fled for his life and to warn everyone else of the impending doom. As the baggy-eyed shinobi ran for his life, he felt as if he was getting heavier, little by little.

'What's going on?!' Hayate thought as he began to feel an unknown weight starting to bear upon him, and slowing his down significantly.

"Like the gravity change?" Veyn said sadistically as he appeared in a flash before the burdened Hayate. "Do you want to see the power of a Key Blade master?"

"Pfft…" Hayate scoffed as he drew his sword from the scabbard from his back and crossed his index and middle fingers. "Sword Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Then in a puff of smoke, an identical sword appeared resting at his palm and readied a stance.

"Oh? That's a nice trick… But so is this." Veyn said with his sadistic grin while he raised his Key Blade into the air. "Thunder!"

Then, bolts of lightning came crashing down into the earth, causing a violent crash, destroying anything it touched. Hayate barely managed to evade the lethal magic attack that would have spelled doom to anyone was directly struck by it's violent spark. Bolts of thunder came crashing from the night sky one after another, and Hayate could barely evade each of them because of the Gravity spell that was cast on him. As the lightning subsided, Hayate was barely able to stand out of exhaustion as he tried to catch his breath. He could feel the sweat come crashing down from his head, distorting his vision.

"Come now, you have to stay alive long enough so I can enjoy using my powers some more…" the dark Key Blade master said while slowly walking up to the injured shinobi.

He then rushed to the vulnerable Hayate and arched his Key Blade horizontally, but Hayate blocked the assault with both of his swords. Seeing an opening, Veyn plunged his instep into Hayate's spinal cords, causing him not only to fly off and land on his face, but also causing so much pain. Though he was barely able to stand, he was shaking as he clutched on to his blades for support. Veyn approached the downed shinobi slowly, enjoying the moment before he takes his life… In a last ditch attempt, Hayate threw his cloned sword straight for the dark Key Blade master, only to have it parried away, and vanish in a puff of smoke. However, as the mist caused by the cloned sword's disappearance cleared, Hayate had already leaped into the air with his sword poised downwards for a fatal blow against Veyn. The dark Key Blade master met his assassination attempt by leaping into the air himself, it took almost no time at all for him to reach Hayate's height, and with a swing of his Key Blade, he shattered Hayate's sword. As the shinobi landed, pieces of the sword fell from the sky, along with his hopes for survival. Hayate had a nervous look when Veyn landed with a sadistic smile.

"I'll admit you were a challenge… And that's the reason why we can't have you around…!" Veyn said as he raised his Key Blade into the air. Then, as if it was cue, the sky, dim as it was started turning cloudy and started emitting lightning that was ready to strike at the command of it's master. "Thunder!"

Lightning struck the spy, there was no time to scream for it all happened in an instant; not only was he killed but he was also burnt into a crisp; it looked like he was just a big raisin shaped like a human. Veyn gave a sadistic grin and pointed his Key Blade for the carcass of the fallen shinobi and set it a blaze using a fire spell.

"Pretty lights…" Veyn said under his breath.

The fire was so big that it attracted a dozen other ANBU black ops to the scene like moths to a flame. They were horrified to see a body set a flame by the Dark Key Blade master. Veyn gave them all sadistic grins, it seems that he had more 'toys' to play with.

"So… Who wants to be next?" Veyn said taking a threatening pierce stance with his Key Blade poised to stab anyone who got in his way, an instant death. However, what was more frightening was not his stance, but his penetrating stare, it was as if the eyes itself were calculating which would be his next victim, and how they would be disposed of.

Several rushed towards the Key Blade master of darkness with their swords drawn in hopes of taking the head of this monster once and for all. However, Veyn had other plans, as he raised his Key Blade, Bolts of lightning fried the ANBU as they all met the same fate as Hayate did. The surviving ANBU who arrived on the scene tried to flee with their lives, but Veyn has yet to fill his sadistic quota.

"Gravity!" and with that, half of the ANBU who survived had either been crushed or was unable to move due to the intensified gravity field. "Blizzard!"

Then, the surviving shinobi were mercilessly frozen on the spot. They all seemed as if they had frost bites; and their entire bodies frozen… And brittle… Veyn took the pleasure of hacking away at their limbs, as they either shattered or were sliced off. None of them could scream as they were helplessly frozen. All they could do was wait for their turn for a slow deaths like the rest of their other comrades. Limb after limb, Veyn severed each of them one at a time before beheading them. This gave Veyn such a wide grin of satisfaction as he saw his victims helpless to fight off the fate that was about to befall each of them.

"Heh… This should be enough to let that brat Kenji know what he's in for…" Veyn said as he surveyed the carnage that gave him such a smile. Then, the dark Key Blade master then vanished into the darkness smiling at the prospect of killing more and more like this.

It was morning when their remains were discovered by not only other shinobi who were scouting the village for any signs of danger were sickened and disgusted at the sight of the carnage, but also the crows that took advantage of all of this to get themselves breakfast. It was a disturbing sight… They discovered bodies that were literally flattened and their bones virtually crushed because of the intense gravity spell, several limbs still frozen and scattered all over the place and the burnt carcass of what remained of Hayate. Anko who was usually easy going couldn't help but to wear a face of utter disgust.

"Damn…! Who could've done this? This is horrible…" Anko said disgusted and could feel her stomach turn at the scent of blood filling the air. She then turned to one of the Shinobi accompanying her. "Send word to Lord Hokage and tell him exactly what happened!" 

"Yes m'am!" with that, he vanished to carry out his orders.

Naruto and Kenji woke up to the alarm clock that rang at 7 AM. Naruto checked up on Kenji only to find him already awake and still on the same clothes that he had yesterday.

"Did you sleep on those?" Naruto murmured as he was still sleepy.

"Yeah, I don't need to change my clothes are made of some special fabric that never get dirty and always stay fresh." Kenji said putting the blonde's mind at ease though he was one to talk because it seemed that he used the same orange sweater and sweat pants… and probably the same underwear yesterday. Just the thought of it brought shivers down Kenji's spine.

The blonde had gotten himself dressed to get ready for training. As they were about to go for the door, Ebisu stood before them with a grim look on his face.

"Listen, something happened… Apparently there was a battle last night, and bodies of our ANBU black ops were found either frozen or flattened." Ebisu explained to his two trainees. "Because of that, training will be cancelled today because I'll have work to do."

"Wait…! Did you say bodies frozen and flattened?!" Kenji said horrified as he began to piece the puzzle together.

"Frozen? Could it be some jutsu or something?" Naruto pipped.

"Listen, take me to where this all happened!" Kenji demanded.

"…Fine…" Ebisu said as he led the two to the scene of the carnage.

It didn't take them long to reach the scene, but what they saw was nothing any of them ever expected. Naruto felt as if he was about to be sick, not only because of the scent in the air, but also the atrocity of the act. Kenji approached the bodies flattened, they were as if something heavy fell on them.

"W-what the hell is this?!" Naruto shouted as it was hard to take in what had just happened… All of these ANBU massacred just like that?

"No way… Gravity… Blizzard… And Thunder…!" Kenji said realizing that they were victims of spells utilized by Key Blade masters. "But… How…? If Veyn and Veil did travel back in time like how I did, then it would be impossible for them to be able to use them… So how did they do it?!"

None of this made sense. Since Kenji lost his power when he supposedly traveled back in time, shouldn't Veyn who also traveled back in time have lost his powers? And yet there were clear signs of spells utilized exclusively by Key Blade masters. The only likely ones who could've done it was Veil, Veyn, or any other Dark Key Blade master. Just when things began to make sense, other things come into play that obscures all logic behind everything… And this was only the beginning…


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry about the delay on the chapter, but classes were murder... Well, without further ado, here's chapter 5!

The news of the midnight massacre spread through the village like wild fire. The chatter and gossip among the passing villager had always been some sort of nonsense or junk, but now, it was of fear… Fear that they or worst, somebody they cared for would be next. Fear had caused such an extensive psychological damage among the already paranoid village that they've begun setting up earlier curfew times for their young despite their whining and protest.

Naruto and Kenji found themselves having a stern talk with Ebisu… The trainer had a anxious and worried look in his face, and about him. Even the stress could be seen through his sun glasses.

"Alright, you know about the attacks, so now it'll be easier to explain things to you." Ebisu began "Because of that, the village has tripled it's patrol, even Chunin have started taking time to patrol things at night. And because of it, I have requested someone to teach you in my place. But don't worry, he'll be a really good teacher…"

Naruto's mouth fell in disbelief while Kenji could feel another headache coming.

"So for today, you have the day off, until he gets here." The elite Jonin trainer explained. "Well, that's all, until we meet again…"

With those parting words, the Jonin Trainer vanished in a puff of some, leaving no trace of him. The two trainees gave a long sigh of disappointment.

'I suppose it couldn't be helped.' Kenji thought while running through his thoughts carefully and trying to figure out what his next move should be.

"Naruto…" Kenji began, catching the attention of the blonde shinobi. "We can't just stand here… Especially what's going on."

"I agree!" Naruto said loudly as he suddenly got a burst of energy. "We've got to train!"

"Up for a sparring match?!" Kenji proposed as he drew his Key Blade in a flash of light and readied his stance.

"I thought you'd never ask…!" Naruto said gleefully as he crossed his index and middle fingers. "Let's go!"

As the two had their sparring match, Sasuke laid in the hospital bed. His room was that of any old hospital, its wals and ceilings were concrete white and the floor was tiled white as well. The hospital was said to be the safest place for healing, especially with several elite ANBU members standing guard the young Uchiha's door to guard against any intrusion. However, the ANBU members would soon find out that it's not the case as in a blink of an eye, kunai were hurled and plunged through their throats for a quick and painless death. As the elite shinobi fell, a mysterious figure with purple hair and round glasses appeared as a sort of silhouette, bearing a bad omen to those who even so much as glance.

Meanwhile, at the forest, both the blonde shinobi and the key blade master were drenched in sweat, Naruto held a pair of kunai knives in each hand as Kenji held his Key Blade across his body in a defensive stance. Both were breathing hard, and had their endurance taxed to the max. The trees were all damaged with either slash marks coming from the key blade, or shuriken and kunai knives plunged into them. They were both ready to go on, despite their exhausted states until their stomachs grumbled violently. Their stomachs were in such a loud riot, that it even surpassed the clashes of metal that were generated from the match.

"Oh man, I could sure use some ramen right about now…" Naruto mumbled as he felt his stomach revolting within him because of the lack of food.--

The Key Blade master then started to understand what the blonde was trying to say as it was already afternoon, the sun was already glaring at the top of their heads, frying their heads, and soaking their face with sweat that's disgustingly sticky. Kenji could feel his Key Blade slipping from his grasp, but not from exhaustion, but the sweat that was generated from his palms. Naruto couldn't grasp his kunai any longer, he could even barely lift his hand let alone form hand signs to perform any jutsu.

"Eh… I think we should take a break…" Kenji said finally as he withdrew his Key Blade in a flash of light.

"Listen, I'm going to grab something back at my place, so go on ahead to Ichiraku Ramen without me, okay?" the blonde explained as he shortly left in a rush.

Then, as Naruto dashed off, the Key Blade master decided to follow suit, he heard something from the bushes. Kenji then drew his Key Blade in a flash of light and took an offensive stance, anticipating perhaps one of this Orochimaru's flunkies to try to take him out, or another one of Veil's so called apprentices trying to do the same.

"Who's there?!" Kenji demanding the would be assailant show him or herself.

Then, a figure emerged from the bushes. Though it was indeed a person, it wasn't one that the Key Blade master anticipated at all… It was that blue haired girl with pale pupils back when the Heartless attacked. She still wore that thick looking gray sweater and those tightened navy blue pants.

"Wait, you're Hinata, aren't you?" the boy inquired.

"Y-yes…" she replied with a stuttering and low tone.

"What are you doing out here? Weren't you supposed to be back at the hospital?" Kenji questioned.

"Y-yes, but we were released early." She replied still with that peculiar tone.

"Well, what are you doing out here?" the boy continued to pry.

"W-well, I was just taking a walk, and I h-heard a some clashing sounds, so I d-decided to follow the sound, a-and I found you two s-sparing…" she explained.

"I see…" the boy said, though it seemed that he believed the navy blue haired girl, at the back of his mind, he seemed to have his doubts about it all.

"Hey Kenji!" it was none other than the blonde shinobi himself. As he approached the two, he seemed to have a worried look in his face.

Then, as the blonde shinobi came closer, Hinata's cheeks then suddenly had blood rushing through them. Her face then started turning redder and redder as he came closer and closer. She also started twitching all over and started looking at the forest floor, as if she was shy about something. Kenji raised an eye brow as he continued to observe her symptoms and then arrived at a conclusion…

'Is it just me, or does Hinata have a crush on Naruto…?' the Key Blade master thought as all of the symptoms that she displayed began to clear any fog of doubt he had in his mind about what he had thought about. Assumptions quickly turned into facts in the face of the evidence of the symptoms that the navy blue haired kunoichi displayed. 'Interesting…'

"Hey! Can you help me look for something?" the blonde requested desperately in a panic. "I lost my ticket for a free bowl of ramen!"

'Of course… Ramen is one of the only things that he'd go so far for…' the Key Blade master thought as he narrowed his eyes and sighing in disappointment of the blonde's predictability.

"I think I dropped it somewhere here when we were sparring!" Naruto said in a panic struck tone.

"I think I can help…" Hinata said as she then closed her eyes. She then started forming several hand signs to focus her chakra. "Byakkugan!"

Then, the instant she opened her eyes, the surrounding area had veins popping out of them and it was as if her pupils were popping out. She then started looking around, as if she was scanning the area. She then sighed with a small smile.

"W-why don't you check the back of your head band?" the blue-haired kunoichi suggested.

As soon as he untied his head band, small piece of paper drenched in sweat fell out of it. It had a small picture of a bowl of ramen and the words "Free" written all over it's surface.

"Oh yeah! I remember now! I hid it behind my head band so it wouldn't fall off!" the blonde said finally as he recalled the events when he took the precaution that led to this incident.

"Hey, how'd you know that it was behind his head band?" Kenji wondered with awe.

"It's a blood line trait that my entire family shares, it's called Byakkugan." She began. "It lets us have a near 360 degree view of our surrounding area as well as being able to see things that normal people can't, like the chakra points within a body."

"Chakra… What?" the Key Blade master wondered in confusion as he found himself lost and curious as to what this 'chakra point'.

"It's the points where chakra flows in the body… If it were sealed, then it would render the person almost unable to move and unable to use chakra." She further explained.

"Interesting…" Kenji said as he absorbed everything that she just said into his mind.

"Well, I need to go, I'm so hungry!" Naruto said as he left without saying anything else.

"W-wait…!" but before Hinata could say anything else, the blonde disappeared far from sight.

"You like him… Don't you…?" the Key Blade master began with a devilish grin. With those words, Hinata glanced at the Key Blade master as her cheeks then began blushing furiously, apparently he tripped on something, seems as if there was more to it than he thought. "Hah… So I was right…"

"P-please, don't tell him, I'd like to do that myself." She pleaded.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll keep your secret…" Kenji said. "But you know, you're by far the only girl that I've seen that actually has a good eye for these things…"

"W-what do you mean…?" she asked, now curious to hear the Key Blade master's opinion.

"Well, all of the girls I've seen so far had been crazy about that Sasuke guy. It's always Sasuke this, Sasuke that…" the key blade master then started to make a rather poor imitation of a girl's tone while blinking a lot. "It's just irritating sometimes."

Then, a dog's bark could be heard from a distance, and then soon enough there came a small, white puppy running towards Hinata; he seemed rather pleased to see her. Then, another boy followed him; the boy had a gray, hooded fur coat and dark brown pants with a small pouch strapped on the right leg. He also had strange red stripe marks across each side of his face.

"Good job, Akamaru!" the boy said, giving the dog a pat on the head. "Hey Hinata, there you are! Just because we're not in the tournament anymore doesn't mean we should slack off! We're supposed to help train Shino!"

Then, the Key Blade master noticed something else… As soon as Naruto disappeared, her blushing stopped, and her stuttering was significantly reduced to a minimum. The disappearance of the earlier symptoms only served to reinforce his earlier discovery.

"Oh… Right…" the girl said. "Go on ahead, I'll catch up with you later, Kiba."

"Ah… Right…" the dog user said as Akamaru then hopped on inside his seemingly protective fur coat. "You'd better be quick or else Kurenai-sensei is gonna give us an earful."

Then, with that, the fur-coated dog user leaped back to the trees, hoping to his supposed rendezvous spot.

"Please, keep it a secret, okay?" Hinata asked still with worry in her tone.

"You don't have to get so paranoid, I won't say anything." Kenji replied, trying to put as much reassurance in his tone as possible. "Now go, I don't think your sensei would be too happy if you're late."

"Right." then, with that, she left the same way the dog user did, up to the trees, and without a trace.

Kenji's stomach grumbled as he walked through the streets of the Hidden Leaf. His stomach is demanding that it was fed some of those addictive bowls of ramen that he's grown so fond of. As his mind drifted off in la-la land where the food was abundant, he bumped into the pink-haired Kunoichi, Sakura. She along with Kenji fell on the ground along with the flowers that seemed to have been only recently picked out. The pink-haired kunoichi wore the same thing that she wore the last time Kenji saw her: a red overall shirt with what seemed like a black overall underneath.

"Whoa… Sorry about that." Sakura said dusting herself off. "Hey, you're Kenji, right?"

"Yeah." The Key Blade master said as not only does his stomach sting with hunger, but his rear now sore after the unpleasant fall. He then noticed the flowers that she carried and was carefully dusting off. "Hey, whose are those for?"

"It's for Sasuke, he was injured in the 2nd exam, and I want to give these to him." Sakura explained. "Where are you going?"

'Wow… Again with that Sasuke guy… Geez, these girls really need to have a wake up call…' the boy thought as this only confirmed on how right he was.

"I'm going to Ichiraku Ramen for lunch." The Key Blade master said as his growling stomach demanded that he did.

"Well, it's along the way to the hospital, so I guess I'll tag along." The pink-haired Kunoichi decided.

The two were then walking through the streets. It seemed as usual, packed. In every stand, there were people buying or bartering for the things that they needed.

"You're staying with Naruto, right?" Sakura asked suddenly.

"Yeah, why?" Kenji replied as he began wondering why she even asked.

"Well, he's just so annoying…" Sakura began. "And he doesn't even clean his apartment!"

"Well, he's not that annoying." Kenji countered.

"You must have a lot of guts if you're still sane." Sakura said complementing the Key Blade master.

"Well, why do you think he's annoying?" Kenji piped up.

It was those words that caused her to stop suddenly… It wasn't out of annoyance that she stopped or disbelief, it was that she had no answer for that.

'… What's the matter with me?! I'm the brains of Team 7, why can't I answer this?!' Sakura thought furiously as she tried searching his mind but it was useless, there was nothing…

"I don't know…" Sakura had a hard time saying this… And it wasn't out of pride that she couldn't say, but disbelief.

Sakura was the most intelligent among her team 7, and yet she couldn't answer a simple question like that. Truth be told, besides realizing that everyone else doesn't like him, she had no solid reason as to why she found the blonde annoying in the first place. It was as Kenji thought, it was probably the horrors that their parents had to face in the past, paranoia, and quite a bit of misunderstanding is what's causing so much grief for Naruto.

"I wonder… Could it be because everyone else for some reason thinks so?" Kenji wondered.

Those words seared into her mind like an imprinting fire. It stung for the pink-haired kunoichi because she had no reason to even think let alone state that he was annoying.

"Well, here's Ichiraku Ramen, I guess I'll see you later." Kenji said cheerfully as he knew at last, his stomach would be satisfied with all the addictive ramen that he can handle.

With that, Kenji went to Ichiraku Ramen and took a seat. It seemed that Teuchi, the Chef of the Ramen bar anticipated Kenji's order and already handed it to the smiling Key Blade master as he and Naruto gobbled down their hot noodles. Sakura looked at the two eating happily as they continued to chatter for no reason. They had gotten along rather well it seems, and now, Sakura wonders why on earth did she think Naruto was so annoying in the first place? She then stared at the set of flowers that she was going to give to Sasuke at the hospital and remembered what she was supposed to do…

'One hand I could go on ahead to visit Sasuke, and on the other…' the young Kunoichi then felt her stomach growling and demanding some kind of food be put in. 'I could go on and eat with Naruto…'

Next few minutes later, Sakura found herself gobbling up ramen that Teuchi served her. Naruto was actually surprised to see this, never in his wildest imagination could he have ever thought or even humored it that she chose to be sitting next to him eating ramen over going over to the hospital to visit Sasuke. Things had gotten interesting indeed.

Kenji had substantially slowed down his consumption of Ramen, as Naruto began to feel slightly uneasy with this sudden development. Teuchi was also interested on how this would all play out.

"This ramen is good…" Sakura said with a mild surprise in her tone. She put down an empty bowl of Ramen, feeling more content than she has had in weeks.

'C'mon Naruto, she's here, now's your chance.' Kenji thought in anticipating the blonde to do something… Anything to impress the pink-haired kunoichi.

'Why's Sakura here? Is this another Genjutsu?' Naruto ran so many possibilities, from likely to un-likely through his mind, hoping that one of them may be the reason why the she's here in the first place. He then noticed a bouquet of flowers.

"Hey, are you visiting Sasuke?" the blonde said finally breaking the silence.

"Yeah." She replied. She then found herself in a difficult position, she knew what she wanted to say, but yet she doesn't have the strength to say it. It took awhile for her to gather the courage she needed. "Hey, do you want to go visit Sasuke with me?"

'You're kidding… Right?! Visiting Sasuke? Is that the best she could think of?!' Kenji thought as he couldn't even begin to comprehend the idiocy that accompanied the kunoichi. 'Oh well, at least this is something… Wonder if Naruto will realize…?'

"Uh say Kenji, wanna tag along?" the following words simply dropped the key blade master's faith in the blonde's ability to read girls, and while the kunoichi started to get a headache due to the idiocy of her team mate.

'Naruto you idiot! That was supposed to be a date! Nobody else is supposed to go besides you and her!' the key blade master thought furiously as he banged his head against the counter of the ramen bar. 'Naruto you dumb ass! You just blew it!'

Sakura was at least able to read why Kenji was doing what he was doing. She gave a long sigh… Loud thuds could be heard across the counter top as Kenji still couldn't believe any of this. It already obvious, and yet he couldn't catch on, she was practically welcoming him with open arms and yet he was too blind to see it, let alone catch the opportunity.

'Naruto will always be Naruto…' Sakura thought.

'I think this is why she finds him annoying…' Kenji concluded.

"Alright… Fine…" the Key Blade master said giving a long sigh of disappointment.

'Geez, what's up with him? I was only asking whether or not he wanted to come, and besides, he isn't doing anything anyway.' Naruto thought as despite how deep in thought he was, he still couldn't comprehend what had just transpired or what he'd just missed.

It was only a matter of time until they finished up the rest of their lunch and started making their way to the hospital. As the afternoon heat started to kick in, the sun's rays began to bombard everybody mercilessly with their UV rays. Kids in particular started playing their games indoors, and away from the sun. However, despite the overwhelming heat, the three managed to arrive at the hospital amidst the sweltering heat. When they made it inside the building, they felt a rush through the air conditioning. It felt great, especially after being outside in the heat.

Sakura wasted no time and went past the desk nurse and seemed to make her way to Sasuke. Apparently, she's been here quite a few times. Seemingly enough to know her way to his room.

"Man, this hospital is big…" the blonde complained. "Are we there yet?"

"Almost there…" Sakura replied.

Then, as they made a turn around the corner of the hall, they spotted two ANBU special ops lying on the ground, and the door opened. They didn't seem to breathing, which Sakura concluded that they were dead… And they seemed to have been stationed in front of Sasuke's room. Panic and worry then suddenly began to overtake Sakura's consciousness, fearing the worst for Sasuke. Her fears were worsened when she spotted a shadow coming out from the room.

"Sakura, get help… Kenji and I will take them…" Naruto whispered quietly as Kenji drew his Key Blade in a flash of light.

Sakura then went of quietly, hoping to get somebody to help them. Then, the two slowly approached the door way, the silhouette slowly faded back into the room. Then, after a count of three, the two rushed into the room, only to find more bodies of fallen ANBU.

"Strange… I could've sworn that someone was here…" Kenji said under his breath.

And someone was indeed in the room, one of the bodies of the fallen ANBU slowly rose from it dormant state, and slammed his foot into the Key Blade master's spinal cord. Not only did it hurt, but it sent him flying right out of the window.

"Kenji!" Naruto screamed as he watched one of his commrades literally falling through the window.

"I'd worry about yourself right now…" the ANBU said with a deathly lethal tone.

Wow, that update took much longer than I anticipated... It's not out of being lazy or anything (Well, mostly), but in either case, since I'm in college, I don't have much time to update. So expect it to take at most a month to update or so.


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